Do You Think About Others?

I’m not talking the “I wonder what they’re thinking of me” in the school kid, be your own person, don’t worry what others think, kind of way.

More of the: “if I do this, how will it be perceived, will it hurt someone” kind of way.

More and more I am thinking this about others around me. Wondering how they could do this or that. And I can’t put my finger on it. And then hoping and praying I am not that kind of person, for the most part.

Take for example, going to a store and not having luck at finding what you needed. Would you holler across the store at the Cashier “YO, I’ve been waiting over here half an hour for someone to help me?”

Would you snap at your waitress and tell her she should be fired for not refilling your drink before you emptied it?

How do you talk to the receptionist at the Doctor’s Office when you arrive? Do you suppose she’s been sitting there all day just waiting to jump to your beckon call upon arrival?

Do you speak to coworkers that cross your path? Or do you watch them walk the same direction you are with hands overflowing with items that you don’t even think twice about holding a door along the way, much less offering to help carry something?

Are you the type of person to be annoyed when a car is stopped in your lane on a back road and you are confused and inconvenienced that you have to slow down and go around? Or did you stop to check on the old man driving because it seemed a miss?

I’m saddened at so many ways we all treat each other. It’s very depressing. How do you feel when someone treats you poorly? Doesn’t it hurt, or upset you? Or does it not even bother you? Perhaps it does so much that you pay it forward and take it out on the next guy? Where’s that commercial on TV? One negative situation is paid forward and snowballs into so many more. It happens. It probably happens more often than any of us want to admit.

I’ll admit it. On days where I’ve been yelled at (I mean REALLY yelled at) by someone, I’m sulking in my office for awhile after so that I don’t take it out on anyway. But, I’ll tell you, if I don’t get that sulk time for some reason, anyone that crosses my path is fair game. And that’s not fair. Not fair to me or to the innocent victim. Or, especially not to the even more innocent victim to whom my innocent victim pays it forward.

When did we get this way? Is it across the board, you think? Is this to blame on the economy, too?