Compliments?

I hear from readers and listeners and audience members every day. Most are kind and thoughtful, even when they are also challenging or ornery or disagreeable.

Some of the things written to me bring me to tears. They are messages that I will save for the rest of my life.

Sometimes trolls visit me, too. Small, angry, vicious little creatures who think they might be able to hurt me with their frequently misspelled words, grammatically challenged sentences, and unoriginal attacks.

I almost always find them amusing, and I almost always ignore them.

Then there are the messages from readers or listeners that might be a compliment, but I’m not sure. I find these the most intriguing of all. The kind of stuff that rolls around in my head for days.

Below are five recent examples of these questionable compliments:

• “Sir, you are a chaos magnet. Not that you didn’t know that.”

• “I only know a couple of people who are strong enough and dumb enough to truly not care what other people think. You’re one of them. The other one is my father. We haven’t spoken in years.”

• “I find your brilliant obstinacy (not to be confused with stubbornness) darkly delicious.”

• “Some days I wish I was your friend. Other days I wish you would just go away. Even though I’m the one who visits your blog every day. I could just stop clicking on the link, but I don’t. I love a lot of what you think and write. Still, I sometimes just wish you’d go away.”

• “Slow down. Your productivity is annoying and offensive and threatening to us all.”

Complimentary? Perhaps. But it’s hard to tell. Right?