I think my experience would have been neutral, or above neutral. Unless he'd reacted really ridiculously, then I might have felt bad, but now I felt acknowledged, believed.

Of course I put stock in something small/common/insignificant, but who doesn't? A white Christmas also seems to make a lot of people happy. So do receiving postcards and when someone smiles at them. Yesterday, this did it for me. (Well, I didn't feel happy, I was mostly relieved. But it's similar.)