I've had the day to myself, leaving the kids at my mom's for lunch and the afternoon. I was noticing how polite the drivers around me seemed to be---letting folks in the flow of traffic, being patient---it was nice to see.
Then I had to stop at the library drive-thru to leave off our pile. I was there maybe a total of about a minute flat. Maybe. Doesn't take much time to grab a few books and toss them down the shoot. When I was about done, a young woman pulled up behind me and I had about 2 more shoves to do ('course she didn't know that) and as I was about to put the last one in the slot (she'd been there, maybe 10 seconds), she got out of her car, walked between my truck and the building, put her own books in the return slot in a not-too-nice manner, which was right beside my window and you could tell she was hacked off. I mean, you can either be nice or not. It really is a choice.
I didn't act too mature myself, saying "s-o-r-r-y" in a sarcastic voice. Not proud of it, but it got my goat her behaving so aggressively. I mean, we're talking about the book return. It never takes folks long, that's why they use it, but my goodness---does everything have to be done so fast? And, really, 'excuse me' isn't hard to say, but folks seem to want the other guy to know when they're hacked off. I admit I did too in the circumstances. Do we have to be in a hurry all the time? Is waiting forbidden? And how can you know when you're following the rule in being fast enough? Truth is, we can't seem to hurry enough, because there's always somebody out there who won't be satisfied. How important are we anyhow?
I do realize that I don't know this woman's story, but the thing is, it makes an impression. I'm sure I made a poor one myself in barking at her, but it is a sad state of affairs when speed seems to be the rule of the world. Politeness does count, and it's getting harder and harder to show it. We're quick to judge and even quicker to shove folks out of the way. Me first isn't the way it's supposed to be, I don't think.
My stinky human side reared its head in response, and I can't excuse my behavior saying it's justified by her reaction, but still....we've got some work to do on this speed issue. Being thoughtful is still important, even in a world that's wound up so tightly. Things need to change. (I was going to say that it needed to change fast, but figured that that was a bit inappropriate considering the subject matter!)
Then I had to stop at the library drive-thru to leave off our pile. I was there maybe a total of about a minute flat. Maybe. Doesn't take much time to grab a few books and toss them down the shoot. When I was about done, a young woman pulled up behind me and I had about 2 more shoves to do ('course she didn't know that) and as I was about to put the last one in the slot (she'd been there, maybe 10 seconds), she got out of her car, walked between my truck and the building, put her own books in the return slot in a not-too-nice manner, which was right beside my window and you could tell she was hacked off. I mean, you can either be nice or not. It really is a choice.
I didn't act too mature myself, saying "s-o-r-r-y" in a sarcastic voice. Not proud of it, but it got my goat her behaving so aggressively. I mean, we're talking about the book return. It never takes folks long, that's why they use it, but my goodness---does everything have to be done so fast? And, really, 'excuse me' isn't hard to say, but folks seem to want the other guy to know when they're hacked off. I admit I did too in the circumstances. Do we have to be in a hurry all the time? Is waiting forbidden? And how can you know when you're following the rule in being fast enough? Truth is, we can't seem to hurry enough, because there's always somebody out there who won't be satisfied. How important are we anyhow?
I do realize that I don't know this woman's story, but the thing is, it makes an impression. I'm sure I made a poor one myself in barking at her, but it is a sad state of affairs when speed seems to be the rule of the world. Politeness does count, and it's getting harder and harder to show it. We're quick to judge and even quicker to shove folks out of the way. Me first isn't the way it's supposed to be, I don't think.
My stinky human side reared its head in response, and I can't excuse my behavior saying it's justified by her reaction, but still....we've got some work to do on this speed issue. Being thoughtful is still important, even in a world that's wound up so tightly. Things need to change. (I was going to say that it needed to change fast, but figured that that was a bit inappropriate considering the subject matter!)
