Easily Amused

My optometrist is hard to read. He's personable and professional, but he doesn't laugh, and he doesn't smile.

During my appointment today, I cracked joke after joke, because, you know... me. He gave me nothing.

After receiving none of the typical responses to my many humorous remarks, I quietly said, "I think I'm funny."

"You are very funny," he said. "It helps that I'm easily amused."

:: blink ::

Excuse me. What?

You're... you're amused?

In the silence that followed, it occurred to me that, yes, he had been responding, just not in any of the ways I was used to.

I realized every time I'd cracked a joke, he had stopped what he was doing and had made eye contact. This was how he acknowledged that something special had happened. 

No laugh. Not a smile. But a pause, and deliberate eye contact.

After I identified it, I appreciated it even more than if he had laughed aloud 🫶