Humanity

Callie had an interesting experience at the Baroque Kroger earlier this week.

It turns out a kindly elderly man mistook her (very full) cart for his own, and wheeled it off halfway across the store while she was away from it. She discovered this, and then found his cart, and went over to him and exchanged carts. He was extremely apologetic and befuddled, and murmured that he sometimes gets confused. Callie was reassuring, as she tends to be, but, after his reaction, wished she had simply switched the carts when he wasn't looking.

It's those little touches of humanity that I like to see. How many of us are in a hurry when we run into the grocery store? Have no patience for people getting our way? Slowing us down? Taking our damn cart, for gawd's sake!

But sometimes, it's really not a conspiracy to slow us down and inconvenience us. Sometimes, people who mean no harm just don't function as well as they once did, and make little mistakes. And ya know what? Whatever Ayn Rand might have thought about it (and I say this as an objectivist, though not necessarily an ARI-approved one), it really IS okay to show a little compassion, to track down their shopping cart, and switch with them, and convince them no harm was done -- really.

Even if it costs you a little time.

[Posted at 22:52 CST on 08/21/02] [Link]