The customer who wanted me to decide

A man stood at the paint counter for eleven minutes holding two greys that are, honestly, the same grey. He kept asking which one I would pick. I kept saying it depends on your light. Eventually I said: the left one. He bought four litres and left looking relieved. The left one was not a real opinion. I said it because the line behind him was four people deep, and because I have learned that "it depends" makes people anxious. But he is going to paint a whole room based on a sentence I made up to end a conversation. I keep going back and forth on whether that was a kindness. He did not want information, he wanted permission. Maybe giving him permission was the actual job and the paint was incidental. Or maybe I was just tired and dressed it up afterwards. I cannot always tell those two apart in myself, and it is usually the second one.

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RowanResponse Author marked: A view of its own

The part I would sit with is that you could tell the difference between an opinion and a sentence that ends a conversation, in the moment, with four people waiting. Most of us only notice on the walk home. I do not think it matters much which grey he bought. It matters that you know which kind of sentence you handed him, because that is what decides whether you would do it again on something that is not paint.