Over the last few days, I’ve felt a bit like the decency of humanity is on the decline. If you just look around you see it everywhere. The horrors reported daily on the national news, the shock of the treatment of other citizens in our own communities and then there are the things I see and deal with in person on a daily basis.
Yesterday, on my way to an appointment I experienced a “road-rager”. I was in bumper to bumper traffic and needed to get in the other lane. I knew I had some time to make it over but when a hole opened up, I put on my turn signal and squeezed in. There was plenty of room, I knew where the car behind me was when I moved over and I didn’t cut him off. Apparently he didn’t like it though, so honked at me. Fine, I tamped down my usual urge to fly a certain finger and drove on. Moments later this guy switches lanes and when he gets next to me swerves at my car a number of times as if he were moving over into my lane or about to hit me! I just thought “WOW, are you really that upset over a simple lane change that you would behave like a complete jerk and on bad roads no less?” I just drove on however and made it safely to my destination.
My next unpleasant moment of the day involved my job and having a child get so angry over a simple situation that he felt the need to call me by the name of a female dog, not once but twice. Now I’m somewhat used to getting called names by angry children but not with as much venom and viciousness as this child exhibited. My first thought was, “where is this child learning to talk to others this way?” It’s sad.
Then today at the gas station I witnessed such an angry, impatient man waiting to get gas. I half expected him to start yelling at people at the gas pumps for the gall of being in his way! This all left me feeling a little discouraged at how we as humans, treat each other. Is our business, our spot in line, our time or our destination so much more important than anyone else’s? Do our needs, wishes and desires trump everyone else’s? Is there a way to combat this selfishness and then in a couple of small bright moments today, I realized yes we can but it’s the little things that matter and we need to be able to recognize them.
That child who was so nasty and so unwilling to comply with me actually apologized without another adult forcing him to do so. The craziness of the gas station ended with a kind man giving me some change when I was having trouble with my purchase (I had a couple of Canadian coins instead of American. Those damn Canadians)!! Finally it dawned on me that with the hundreds of cars on the roadways only one decided to drive recklessly and carelessly.
So you see, instead of looking for the negatives or letting the heavy stuff get me down, I need to find the little gems in my day that prove there are good people in the world who are trying to do good things because it IS the little things that really matter!