Thinking about Thank You

I was going to blog about waterless urinals, but something happened while leaving Italian class worth blogging about. As I was exiting the building, an older gentleman leaving the building held the door for me. My mind was whizzing about with all of the "pronomi relativi" and "il voce passivato" that appeared on my Italian quiz, which was quite difficult for the first quiz,  but walking through the door I quietly said "grazie." The man obviously did not hear my and launched into a tirade about how overburdened he was, how deplorable my manners were, and the overall degeneration of society. So to quickly appease him, I provided him with the English equivalent "thank you." But this led me to thinking, should people really expect a thank yous? The man would likely consider his act a favor, or an act of generous assistance, but in reality, his action was a contractual agreement, in which he expected compensation in the form of my expression of gratitude. (This is evidenced by him saying "thank you" to me after my thank you, as if I had given him something he was missing.) I however,  never entered into such an agreement because he wasn't my obliged "door holder." I really owed him nothing. True generosity comes from the selflessness of giving without the expectancy of anything in return. The man's action certainly merited an expression of gratitude, but to be truly generous, he would have been satisfied...with or without my thanks.


Nonetheless, thanks again for holding the door.


Signed,
EJS