Paper Procrastination Post # 9873834: Can I get you a coffee?

(sigh.) Back at it. After Jesus's kind intervention yesterday, I know I have to get with it. I was good. I packed myself a lunch last night so that after class this morning I could head straight to the library and get on the ball. I'm sure I'll come up with some imaginary screenplay starring the brave yet misunderstood and marginalized gaucho Juan Moreira and me as his lady love depicting some snippet of our rustic, tumultuous life on the Argentine pampas. But I have to get to at least page 5 or 7 or so before I'll allow my brain to take another procrastinatory break.

Anyway, before getting down to business, I wanted to reflect on kindness. It's amazing to me how rare it must be for someone to just do something even marginally nice for someone else these days. What I mean is, why do some people act shocked in the face of kindness, and why is it hard for some people to accept? This morning after a classmate came to do her language lab time right after mine, I decided I needed a latte to perk me up before medieval lit. I asked her if she wanted a coffee too. She said that sounded like a good idea and immediately began digging in her purse for money after I asked her what she wanted. She started freaking out after I told her not to worry about it, that it was on me. She couldn't fathom the idea that I simply wanted to get her a coffee without any expectation of anything in return. "But, but, a cup of Starbucks coffee is like five dollars!" she protested. "Please don't worry about it, it's your Christmas present," I joked. She finally relented.

I didn't think of it as any big deal at all. It wasn't like I had offered to do some kind of heroic deed. A cup of coffee? Come on. But we've become so hardened that we automatically assume that lurking behind even a small token of kindness is an expectation of something in return. I can honestly say I don't think that way. If you give expecting something back, I don't think that's giving in love. When I came back with the two lattes, we spent the 30 minutes before my medieval lit class chatting about our families and what we want to do after we graduate. She's not someone I normally interact with much, and she's usually kind of withdrawn. But something said just offer to get her a coffee too, so I did. And I'm glad I did.