It's that time of the year again! We are all stressed beyond reason in this joyous season(sorry, I love rhyming)and because I work in customer service, I get to see the best and the worst of people all the time, but it's exacerbated by our wacky gift-focused culture. I have to admit, sometimes I don't love the Holiday Season because of my job. It becomes tedious when you are berated day after day for not having the RIGHT thing in stock or for not having the best sale and then there's that whole "Merry Christmas" or "Happy Holidays" thing. Luckily, I sell clothes for children, so I get to talk to children and they are not ever mad if I say we don't have something. They might be disappointed, but they can be cheered up by a dumb joke(Why did Adele cross the road? To say "hello" from the other side) or a compliment or just by being recognized as a full human being. One of the best things that has happened this year is my company decided to put up a wish tree in every store. There is a whole contest attached to it and it's going to promote our social media, but I just read the wishes the kids put up and they are amazing. For every "I want everything in the store" or "iPhone 6s" or "PONY!" wish, there is a "I hope no other children get cancer, like I did" or "I wish my Grandma could come back from Heaven" or "I wish there was enough food all the time." What a lesson for us grownups. Because while we're rushing around, freaking out because we can't find one thing on her list, she is wishing for "Peace on Earth." Huh.
Yesterday morning, it was raining. Anyone who drops their child off at an elementary school in the morning knows that the number of people who drop their children off at school explodes exponentially on rainy mornings. People drive through the car rider lane who don't even have kids, that's how many people there are. The other thing that happens is that the people who are there to open doors for children and pull them out of the car(because their mom put them in full rubber regalia to meet the icy 65 degree winds on the three steps to the front door and the kids can't even move their extremities) are frantically waving everyone in because "THE TARDY BELL IS GOING TO RING AND YOU ARE GOING TO BE TARDY AND OMG THE HUMANITY! THE TAARRDDYYY BEELLLLLLLL!"So there is a weird sense of urgency to the whole thing, even though they know there is a line around the block. I drove E to school, like every morning, and we left at the same time as every morning, because that's how we roll. That meant we ended up at the end of a very long line to enter the school. Usually, we all use the zipper method to merge into the line from two different directions, but the rain people were unaware that we use manners and it was getting a little crazy. A large, black SUV decided to drive onto the grass in front of the school, people park there all the time. But this person didn't park. They drove around the parked cars and then GOT BACK IN THE LINE by cutting off a Fiat who was about 5 cars ahead of where they were before. Nobody honked. I think we were all stunned. And then I started thinking "Do they not understand that they are part of a community? That people they know and that their children go to school with are all watching? That their very own children are watching and learning from them?" It made me think of all those people who are trying to make their loved ones happy by screaming at sales clerks and elbowing other shoppers out of the way so that they can get the last red sweater.
Why are kids so much better at valuing relationships than adults are? Why do we lose that as adults? That idea that even superficial relationships are important? It's not just human relationships, every organism in the world has to coexist with the things around it and when they don't--when one thing gets out of control--everything goes haywire: think cancer cells, plagues of locusts, global warming. I know that I walk around stuck inside my own head ALL THE TIME. I also know that every time I act like a jerk(and that is so much more often than I would like) it's because I'm thinking about how the world impacts me and not how I impact the world. Doing the right thing is SO hard, but it makes the world SO much better. Today, I'm going to try to make one new, positive relationship, even though I feel like grumbling. Wish me luck, wish me peace, wish me joy(just don't wish for a pony--they're so much work).
Love,
Corks
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