RUDE!

Today was a beautiful, sun shiny day at the car wash. But despite all the sun and warmth there were a lot of crabby folks out. People my Sugar likes to refer to as "crab trees." It wasn't JUST that they were crabby, some of them were just down right rude.

Now I know I live in the south now, but I don't think I should ever have to say, "Didnjour mama teach you no better?" (At least not outloud or in public)

A big part of my job is to greet people at the car wash and present the "ongoing promotion" which is an unlimited monthly wash program. Now, most people just take the brochure, stare at it blankly and listen to my short but sensible shpeel. I actually had some guy (with a little boy in the backseat of his pick up truck) thrust it back at me and say, "Nah I won't be interested in that," and roll up his window.

As I waved and walked past his truck to the next car in line, I did notice that his plates were from Texas, but that's really no excuse.

One customer was having trouble getting his sticker to read at the terminal and called me on the phone in the office to help him. I heard someone else actually yelling at him, like he was doing something wrong. Something about he had a crying baby in the car. My thoughts are, "Then now probably isn't the best time for a carwash doofus! But don't harass the poor guy in front of you who was having troubles of his own." It's not like yelling at him was going to help the guy get through the wash any faster.

Why can't we all just be a little bit kinder to one another? How hard is that really? We don't know what you're going through personally today anymore than you know what we are experiencing today. But instead of just letting stress control us and lashing out at perfect strangers, wouldn't it stand to reason that if you exercised some patience or demonstrated some help or kindness to another human being that it might elevate your own spirits?

Perhaps I am just THAT naive, or maybe those Burberry sunglasses I wear outside are just too rose tinted. But I chose to smile at the rude man and wish him a good afternoon. I chose to upgrade the ding dong who did NOT follow my instructions and wait for me to tell him it was now okay to enter the wash after I reset it and consequently got stuck and I had to reset it AGAIN. I chose to help out my boss in little ways like doing an extra load of towels and setting up paperwork for tomorrow even though he seemed short with me and had a little attitude throughout the day.

And now I'm home, and this day is over and truthfully, right now, I just feel sad for the people who think they are too good, or too important, or can't be bothered with listening to me. After all, they are waiting in line at the carwash... did they have something better to do? But as someone in the sales/service industry I would never treat anyone else like that. It really doesn't matter who you are. Once upon a time your mother told you to be polite to other people. So listen and then say "No thank you."

That's all. It's really that simple. But there is really no reason to not show kindness. When last I checked kindness doesn't cost you anything.