post vacation jet lag
We just returned from a week long vacation in sunny Orlando, Florida. We skipped Disney--don't even get me started on my annoyance with that corporation--and headed for the Universal Studios and Sea World theme parks instead, with a jaunt over to Cape Canaveral to visit the Kennedy Space Center. The kids were a little young for that, resulting in limited enjoyment for us as well. Next trip perhaps.
But what we really noticed throughout the week was the rudeness of people in general. We were pushed, we were jostled, we were ignored and all other sorts of ugliness by the other patrons of such parks. Adults attempting to push their way past our children for a photo op with Shrek. A woman pushing me while saying, "We are trying to get through!" on her way to a spot (where she was karmically soaked) for the Shamu show at Sea World. My loving spouse muttered back at her, "Everybody is trying to get through." I understand Shamu is a big deal when you don't have access to such things routinely. And truth told, we do. We have access to all these parks right near our home and so I suppose we are a bit more immune as adults. But our kids aren't. They are just as eager to feed the dolphins as the next person is and when a grown person shoves him/herself in front of my four year old to try to pet a dolphin, well, my blood just boils. (What would you want for your child?) Maybe people don't understand that what they're doing is rude. But I really think they do and that most of us suffer from insufferable rudeness and lack of proper etiquette and consideration for others.
Today for example. We were flying back home and were at the middle airport between flights. I was standing in line to buy some food for the family (an entirely separate rant; why don't airlines serve food anymore?!). A youngish man came walking up toward the counter, looked right at me, then inserted himself between me and the man actually paying at the counter. I gave him the benefit of the doubt. Actually, it was more like I was in denial. Surely he wasn't cutting in front of me so blatantly, right? He must be with the other man. He must be his son! No. Just a dick. He began his order. I said, "Excuse me, but I was standing in line when you cut in front of me." No response. I repeated myself. No response. Meanwhile his order is completing and he has paid and moved to the side. I walked to the counter, made sure he made eye contact with me and said, "Hi. I was actually standing in line." Blank stare. "When you walked into line. Remember that? You looked right at me? You looked into my eyes? You cut right in front of me. I was in line." The clerk looked aghast. Why? Is it so wrong to confront him? I didn't actually tell him out loud that he's a dick. I didn't say anything insulting. I merely repeated the facts of the encounter. He muttered something back but it certainly wasn't remorseful and there was no apology. It was more that he acknowledged my truth. "Yeah. You're right." That just makes him a dick.
My son often comes home from school and comments that he and his teacher are the only people in his class who ever say "Bless you" when somebody sneezes. We aren't particularly religious. I believe we are spiritual, but not particularly faithful to any one religion. So we've taught bless you, salud as phrases of etiquette to our children. My son is particularly affronted that no one else uses either phrase or even appears to notice a sneeze. And evidently he's done some experimenting with it with some fake sneezes (that just makes me giggle a little bit to imagine). He keeps commenting that he's going to stop using the phrases and I keep encouraging him to take the higher moral ground. I firmly believe that joy begets joy. So I try to smile at everyone and thank everyone and please everyone. And it often works. I often get a big smile back and a Have a good day. But that's just the people who are being paid to interact with me. The rest of the people...well...let's just say there was a bit of relief to come home today. I was about to dispense with the thank yous and start in on the blows.
But what we really noticed throughout the week was the rudeness of people in general. We were pushed, we were jostled, we were ignored and all other sorts of ugliness by the other patrons of such parks. Adults attempting to push their way past our children for a photo op with Shrek. A woman pushing me while saying, "We are trying to get through!" on her way to a spot (where she was karmically soaked) for the Shamu show at Sea World. My loving spouse muttered back at her, "Everybody is trying to get through." I understand Shamu is a big deal when you don't have access to such things routinely. And truth told, we do. We have access to all these parks right near our home and so I suppose we are a bit more immune as adults. But our kids aren't. They are just as eager to feed the dolphins as the next person is and when a grown person shoves him/herself in front of my four year old to try to pet a dolphin, well, my blood just boils. (What would you want for your child?) Maybe people don't understand that what they're doing is rude. But I really think they do and that most of us suffer from insufferable rudeness and lack of proper etiquette and consideration for others.
Today for example. We were flying back home and were at the middle airport between flights. I was standing in line to buy some food for the family (an entirely separate rant; why don't airlines serve food anymore?!). A youngish man came walking up toward the counter, looked right at me, then inserted himself between me and the man actually paying at the counter. I gave him the benefit of the doubt. Actually, it was more like I was in denial. Surely he wasn't cutting in front of me so blatantly, right? He must be with the other man. He must be his son! No. Just a dick. He began his order. I said, "Excuse me, but I was standing in line when you cut in front of me." No response. I repeated myself. No response. Meanwhile his order is completing and he has paid and moved to the side. I walked to the counter, made sure he made eye contact with me and said, "Hi. I was actually standing in line." Blank stare. "When you walked into line. Remember that? You looked right at me? You looked into my eyes? You cut right in front of me. I was in line." The clerk looked aghast. Why? Is it so wrong to confront him? I didn't actually tell him out loud that he's a dick. I didn't say anything insulting. I merely repeated the facts of the encounter. He muttered something back but it certainly wasn't remorseful and there was no apology. It was more that he acknowledged my truth. "Yeah. You're right." That just makes him a dick.
My son often comes home from school and comments that he and his teacher are the only people in his class who ever say "Bless you" when somebody sneezes. We aren't particularly religious. I believe we are spiritual, but not particularly faithful to any one religion. So we've taught bless you, salud as phrases of etiquette to our children. My son is particularly affronted that no one else uses either phrase or even appears to notice a sneeze. And evidently he's done some experimenting with it with some fake sneezes (that just makes me giggle a little bit to imagine). He keeps commenting that he's going to stop using the phrases and I keep encouraging him to take the higher moral ground. I firmly believe that joy begets joy. So I try to smile at everyone and thank everyone and please everyone. And it often works. I often get a big smile back and a Have a good day. But that's just the people who are being paid to interact with me. The rest of the people...well...let's just say there was a bit of relief to come home today. I was about to dispense with the thank yous and start in on the blows.
posted by LB @ 7:46 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home