Last night Mom and I went to a local pub for the New Year's Eve celebrations, where we enjoyed delicious home made pizza (kudos to Heidi and Dan, who we don't know but we do know they donated and prepared the pizza) and listened to karoake. I tend to avoid karoake, but last night the singers were amazing and the listening was fun.

Once again I had the pleasure of watching people interact with Mom. Part of the interest might have been that she is more than twenty years older than the next oldest person who was there, but that doesn't fully explain why people seemed to line up to talk to her. I've been seeing this all my life. Mom is interested in everybody and willing to listen to everybody. As a child I used to notice as people started talking to her in the grocery store. Strangers felt comfortable with her and opened conversation and soon she'd know the deepest troubles in the life of a person she'd never seen before and wouldn't again.

I've puzzled about the magic of this.

Part of the solution is courtesy. Mom has human courtesy so ingrained that she seems never to need to think about it. She can be terribly fierce, but she will not be rude and she will not cause harm by choice. World leaders should take lessons from her.

But courtesy isn't enough to explain the magic. I suppose part of it is that she's alert. Most people go about their days wrapped in their own heads (I'm talking about myself here) where when Mom is out in company she's watching and receiving the signals from anybody around. I think people notice that she's noticing.

Maybe that's it. She's a good person who pays attention.

Rare.