Were you born an asshole or did you have to take a class?

11.29.07
Bah Humbug! Hmm... do I really mean that? I guess not, but I am feeling a little depressed over many of the actions of total strangers thus far this holiday season.

A couple days ago as I was taking Daniel to school, I noticed there was an accident near our road which had traffic backed up at least a mile. Not wanting to sit in that mess, I decided to steal a few minutes & run in the dollar store. The dollar store is great for expendable holiday supplies... wrapping paper, tissue paper, tape, gift bags, ribbons, etc., you get the idea.

Anyway, I ended up with a buggy jam-packed full of stuff and I knew it would take several minutes to check out. The man behind me had just one item (highlighters) in his hands. When he saw how much I had, he sighed something that sounded a lot like "oh shit" and rolled his eyes. So I smiled politely and said, "Why don't you go ahead of me?" To which he snidely replied, "I thought so!" While I stood there with my mouth open, slightly stunned & trying to think of something to say, the lady behind the counter raised her eyebrows and gasped "WELL!"

While it wasn't terribly egregious, it was overtly rude and uncalled for. I honestly didn't know what to make of it. Perhaps he was already having a terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad day at 9AM. Maybe his favorite hunting dog had a run-in with a Mac truck that morning. Maybe his wife had just left him for another woman. Maybe he disapproved of my purchasing Scooby-Doo wrapping paper. Or maybe he was just an asshole. I'd really like to think it's the first one since I hadn't done anything to warrant his attitude. I hadn't even looked in his direction until I noticed he was behind me.

I found myself wondering if it was karma coming back to bite my ass. It could have been that one time I stuck my gum under the table at McDonald's when I was 9. Or that time I turned down a second date with a guy because he was a sloppy kisser and the thought of having to kiss him again made me physically ill; but I fudged the truth and said it wasn't him, it was me. Or maybe it was one of the times I flipped someone off in traffic during my road-rage teen years when I had a very big Cadillac and could force my way through traffic like a Panzer. Does karma even work that way? And if it does work that way, does it count against me that I mentally wished for him to develop a severe case of boils on his butt the size of silver dollars if he was just being rude and I hadn't wronged him somehow?

Since one of my pet peeves is rude people, I try my very best to be polite and courteous to others. I smile at people and tell them to have a good day. I tell people how much I appreciate it when they go out of their way to help me. I hold doors for people. I help moms struggling with their small children. I give up close parking spaces for elderly people. I say excuse me, pardon me, I'm sorry, please and thank you. I make my children say it too. I even let people with less items cut in front of me at the dollar store. So what did I do to deserve a jerk with a package of highlighters treating me like crapola?

Guess I was just thinking with the holidays approaching, people would get that sweet, "here-let-me-help-you" demeanor like I've seen in years past. Not the nasty, "I-thought-so-bitch!" attitude. I know, I know... I can't legislate how people celebrate the holidays. And I can't tell them how to act, but I feel like I can at least expect common courtesy. Maybe it's just wishful thinking on my part.