I’m impressed by $220 sunglasses for runners.

Not the price tag. Or the quality of the product. Or how great they look. I’m impressed that there are people out there who will invest $220 and they’re confident that a week later, the sunglasses will still be around.

Umbrellas and sunglasses are my nemeses–I tend to lose them quite often so the thought of investing significant amounts of cash to either of them makes me pause. I lost another pair of sunglasses the other night. These were actually a nice pair that I won in a raffle so I tried to be careful about not losing or breaking them. I did pretty well–I had them for about 18 months. But while playing softball last Thursday night with our awesome Urban Village team, I hung them on the fence because it was cloudy and, well, you know the rest. I realized on Sunday that I had forgotten them.

I went to the field on Monday with my kids in the remote chance that they’d still be there, but they weren’t. On our way back to the car, a city employee who was mowing the lawn stopped me.

“Did you lose something?” he asked. I explained my dilemma and was taken aback by his response.

“Oh, man, I am so sorry. Really sorry. Were they nice?”

We had about a 5-minute conversation about the niceness of the glasses and he went on to say how sorry he was a couple more times. He was genuine and sincere and it made the loss feel not so bad.

This man’s sincerity and kindness was a good reminder of how to express remorse, empathy, and regret. Sometimes we think there are magic words to say to someone who’s struggling and occasionally there are, but mostly, a sincere statement of caring is all that’s called for. If you know someone in your life who could use words of comfort and care, take a risk and share those words with him or her. As long as you share these words with compassion and care, your effort will mean a lot. And there’s no price tag on that.