Seeing

     People were going into the meeting room, I was one of the last. I noticed a young man looking intently at our faces as we came through the door. He was doing a thing I thought only I did. When one encounters a person, if your look carefully at their expression as they first see your face, you can tell if they are truly happy to see you in that first millisecond before they get their pleasant face up. I realized how unfair this was, people have complex internal environments shaped by a horribly random world, with levels of coping energy varying wildly. It might have little to do with how much they like you that day, perhaps they are not relating well to anyone. 

     I'd always felt I could read people pretty well. Later as I thought of the young man, I realized it might be a skill some people develop too early, scanning the face of their stressed caregiver, trying to tell what might be coming at them next.