Climbing the steep hill from the river path one cool morning after walking the dogs, I glanced over my shoulder and saw someone coming along briskly, though still far behind me. I continued walking, pulling gently at the dogs when they stopped to sniff. I wasn’t by any means racing home, but when the stable’s in sight, I just want to get there.
The woman overtook me near the top of the hill. Her arms pumped and her ponytail bounced. As she passed, I said, “Vas bien!” That means something like, You’re doing well!
Without slowing down, she smiled and gave a half-laugh as she answered, “Ya te digo. Ya te digo.”
I tell you. It was a phrase for agreeing, but with a nod to our shared climb up the hill.
But what, actually, was she agreeing with? If we had been struggling alike in our ascent, I might have said something slightly different, like What a hill! Or This part is never easy. Then her agreement would have made sense. In English, that might’ve been, Tell me about it! or No kidding! Instead, however, I was pointing out a difference between her progress and mine. Essentially, I was complimenting her. Surely you can’t just agree to a compliment—not without adding an ironic statement about what it has cost you or how you didn’t expect such a good performance for yourself. Or if my phrase had been ironic because she was lagging, it might have made sense for her to agree. I tell you!
For the rest of the morning, between vacuuming the house and canning the peaches, I kept returning to that moment, to my comment and her reply. Was something slightly off in our communication, or was something wrong with my understanding of the Spanish she’d spoken? Had I misspoken? Was there something else in the equation that I wasn’t taking into account, some small look or gesture that might have mattered?
By the end of the morning, I had hardly advanced. My only conclusion was that communication is never easy. Careful thinking takes a lot of effort. Putting distractions aside and getting on with your morning is tough, too. I tell you!
I moved from the living room to the hall, the stick vacuum whirring away effectively, my brain not quite so much.
