Behaving Badly

One Day, Two Examples of how To Be or Not To Be, Three Thoughts...

Scenario 1. A car is pulled over on the edge of a busy four-lane, with no shoulder to speak of. The emergency blinkers are on, but this is a dangerous place to stop the car, with traffic having to move over to get around her. WTF??
As I move past, I see the middle-aged driver, in office attire, is shepherding a mamma duck and her babies down the narrow sidewalk. If her stopped car was a bad location, this duck family was in the worst spot ever - between a concrete wall and traffic whizzing by. I watched in my rear view mirror until I could no longer see her; that woman walked the ducks clear down and around a corner to safety.
Score one for caring! What a great lesson to those of us zipping by!

Scenario 2: A young woman, in the car ahead of me at Wendy's drive-through, is ordering food. It looks like there are three small heads in the car, and a lot of movement. Moments, then minutes, go by. The chitlin's are apparently changing their mind about what they want, or don't want, to eat. The voice on the other end of the order line is calm, but after some minutes go by there is a controlled tone of exasperation. Cars are piling up behind us.
I glance at the clock on the dashboard.
By the time the woman pulls up to the window, seven minutes have gone by, and eight cars have accumulated behind her. She is apparently oblivious to the fact that she is sucking up lot of time and energy in the drive-through line, and the children are totally unaware of the wait their indecision has created for others.
Likewise, the food delivery is not smooth. Several items go from the car back into the delivery window. There is nary an adult-decision-to-speed-this-up nor a glance backwards to the traffic jam this indecision has created. Nor, in all likelihood, any use of the teachable moment as to how our choices and activities impact others around us. Probably not even a notice of the numbers of customers, let alone restaurant workers, who have been inconsiderately inconvenienced by these choices.

We are, as some have said, "all in this together". Every unconscious or conscious decision made throughout our days has the potential to impact others. Driving slow in the fast lane? Notice that car coming up behind you, and move over. Waiting at an intersection? Pay attention for your turn. (I've seen a disturbing increase in the inconsiderate practice of "If I Stopped Then I Can Go", irregardless of whose "turn" it is!) See a car coming? Get out of the way! Another disturbing trend, observed particularly in young people: Not Having Enough Sense To Get Out Of The Street. Have you seen some young folks just, slow as molasses, saunter across a street or parking lot when the automobile obviously has the right of way? Staring at the patient driver as if you've committed Murder One while you are awaiting their tedious passage? OMG. How incredibly inconsiderate. These children must be the progeny of the woman in the Wendy's line debacle...

Got a person behind you at the grocery store who has just a few items to your thirty? Wave them through ahead of you. See a person or animal in distress? Lend a hand. In the street with a car coming? Move out of the way! See an article of clothing or a product on the floor in a store? Pick it up. Walk past a piece of garbage in a parking lot? Give it a lift to the nearest canister.

That tome about Everything I Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarden has some validity. If only we had all passed Kindergarden! Think about it, folks. We are all in this together. Make Nice, Make Your Day, and Make Someone Else's.