I love shiny things. I love the way the light reflects off of them, dancing specular highlights that sparkle and hold my attention. Which is why I was delighted yesterday to receive a new penny as my change.
I looked at it in my hand and exclaimed, “Ooh! Shiny!”, my expression breaking into a beaming smile. The person who served me looked at me in that way — as if trying to decide if I was crazy.
I decided to explain: “I like shiny. Shiny is good.”
For some reason this didn’t convince her of my sanity or normality! “You’re weird” she said as she walked away, but she was smiling as she said it. She recounted this to the other member of the bar staff, a young woman. She laughed, but in a friendly way, and as she walked past me I repeated “Shiny is good!”.
I was happy because I had acted naturally and gained pleasure from my new shiny possession. They were happy because they found my reaction amusing. I wasn’t offended, there was no malice. Everyone walked away a little happier: definite win-win.
My Autistic Dance 
Hahaha! I LOVE THAT! And I do it very often as well, it’s fun to make people smile because your happiness about simple, “childish” things is just so irresistible! I always like to think I’ve brightened up someone’s day by doing that, even if I have to sacrifice my so-called dignity. Which I don’t really have. 😛
I especially like you saying how it was the natural thing to do! Even though you got “that look”. I’m sure they’re still smiling when they mention you. In a good way! It is contagious. 😀
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That’s exactly it!! A childlike innocent pleasure in something simple. 😀 😛 😀 (*excessively smiley*)
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Shiny IS good. (but patterny is better 🙂 )
Don’t you sometimes start smiling as you walk when you notice something pretty (as in shiny, or in my case patterny)?
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Dappled sunlight through the first new leaves of Spring. Makes me grin. 😀
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I can picture it! 😀 *happy*
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Patterny is good too 🙂 Dewdrops beaded on spiders’ webs and the fernlike tracery of frost on a window.
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Oh, so lovely, all of them! I love rocks and minerals for the shiny, pattern, and tracery! 🙂
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I do things like this occasionally and it never seems to get a positive reaction. *sigh*
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I’ve had critical reactions in the past and it made me so self-conscious that I suppressed those behaviors. Now I’ve reached the point where I think, “This is me, if you don’t like it it’s your problem” and I act naturally much more than I used to. I feel happier for it.
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This post triggered some happy childhood memory, a feeling of pure joy; I haven’t pin-pointed it, but it was a shiny good feeling anyway! I will read on, there may be more (and then I will have to start at the beginning, to catch up) 😀
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