Being a
procrastinator with no Independence Day plans, I went to my local grocery this
morning to hunt hamburger and bun bargains. I found both. I also found two
employees, strangers to me, who unwittingly taught me a lesson.
The first
was a young man, maybe high school age.
As I
navigated my cart towards produce, an upbeat song started to play on the store’s
sound system. I felt the rhythm. I wanted to dance, but I usually save
spontaneous public dancing for Jamaica. The young employee also felt the beat
and had no geographical inhibitions. He danced. Even when he saw me watching
him and grinning, he danced. He continued to dance as I followed him down the
aisle.
The second
teacher was an older woman, maybe my age, maybe a bit younger.
I chose her
checkout lane…and wished I hadn’t. She didn’t want to work this holiday and she
made sure I (and everyone in earshot) heard her. She kvetched* about her wages
and the company which pays them. She whined about not having time to prepare a
dish for the picnic she would go to when she finally got off work. (I assured her the hosts would be happy to
have her anyway.)
After I
escaped her tirade, I asked, “God, what are you teaching me?” I encountered two
employees experiencing the same circumstance: working on a holiday. One chose to boogie,
while the other chose to bellyache. Their choices were likely unconscious, but
were still choices.
Those of
you who know me in real life (as opposed to online) know I act more like the grumbling
woman than the grooving young man. God and I are working on that.
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* kvetch (kvɛtʃ)
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— vb
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slang chiefly
( US
) ( intr ) to complain or grumble, esp incessantly
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[C20: from Yiddish
kvetshn, literally: to squeeze, press]
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kvetch. Dictionary.com. Collins English Dictionary -
Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition. HarperCollins Publishers. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/kvetch
(accessed: July 04, 2014).
