Compliments and the Unidimensional

In today's reality tv society where people are diminished to being one-dimensional caricatures of actual people, I find I am resentful when people think I am mono-dimensional. I know what you're thinking, 'old quick-to-judgment Molly is being more than a bit hypocritical.' But I have to say I really don't think people are only one thing or one way, (except for very few exceptions), I'm just not interested in seeing certain people's multi-faceted-ness. (In some cases, I'll make up elaborate back stories of people for my own amusement. Or I decide what a stranger's life must have been like and then chat them up to try to get as many details as possible to see how accurate I was. Both of these activities I have done since film school - it's a great activity, you should try it.) There is a bush and I am beating around it.

At church recently I was informed that I hated sports. I told the super-cute girl who suggested this that I was glad to have an attribute assigned to me like that and to have been informed of it. When she presented her evidence as being that I don't ever hang out or join in when people are playing sports at church*, I countered with, "I like music but that doesn't mean I'm going to listen to a middle school band perform just to hear some." 

The other day, I got to spend some time with my three year old brother Isaac. During part of the time, he was playing with the four year old neighbor girl. Her mom came over after a few minutes, and we had a nice chat. The next day, I went again to my dad's house, this time to steal some tools and drop off the myriad of clamps I absconded away with, when my dad's neighbor's husband stopped me, "You know, [my wife] told me that you were really great with kids." This statement, meant as a compliment, was stripped of all of its good-intention before it even finished leaving this man's mouth because he said it with a tone of such complete awe and surprise - it was a concept he had never even begun to consider. To him, I am just Drew's sarcastic and liberal** daughter who only comes over to use power tools.

To these people, I would like to say: 1. I don't like sports as much as you do, as I would never play at church knowing that my nose could be broken, like yours was last week. And 2. compliments sound less like compliments the more surprised you sound, but no hard feelings, because I see you as my dad's talkative, uber-conservative neighbor who called me old. My, that kettle sure is black, isn't it!


*In actuality, I don't "hang out" or "join in" at church like....ever. It's not exclusive to sports.***
**Everyone is liberal compared to him. 
***I actually feel like Mormons should not be allowed to play team sports like basketball because there are such high levels of competition that injuries and animosity always occur.