My friends and I opted out of the library and did our homework at a coffee shop the other day. I sat there people-watching per usual and spotted a woman peering around her nook in the wall with irritation in her eyes. She was waiting for her food and was not being subtle with her annoyance that she was not yet served.
“Why do we even keep coming back, this happens every time.”
“I don’t understand why it takes this long to make one salad.”
The barista behind the counter was working solo that morning and had quite a line to tend to.
After a few minutes, the barista was kind enough to bring the woman’s food right to the table. She did not bring utensils with her--honest mistake--but the woman marched right back up to the counter to tell the barista she did not receive them. The barista politely showed her the drawer of utensils located under the counter of condiments and the woman was finally able to enjoy her salad.
My friends and I rolled our eyes, talked a little smack about this grown woman’s unacceptable behavior, and got back to work.
After a bit, the woman and her friend got up to leave. The woman dropped her container of unused dressing and it splattered all over the floor. She glanced down at it and without a second thought, walked out the door.
There was a collective “why do people suck?” that emerged from our table, but no sooner did a man turn the corner and grab a handful of napkins as we stood up to do the same.
He quietly knelt down to clean the floor. As he stood up and threw away a plethora of dirty napkins, he mentioned nothing about the woman or the mess he just cleaned. Instead he asked us what we were studying, wished us luck on our finals, and left.
How easy would it have been for him to kneel down on the floor and complain about how his knees hurt or complain about how many napkins this was wasting (we do have a planet to to care for, you know) or complain that the woman just sucked in the first place? Real easy. Because that’s what I did.
I think we should all be a little more like the man in the coffee shop...unassuming and kind without pointing blame. It’s so easy to shame others and complain about cleaning other’s messes, but being negative might as well undo any kindness we do as a result of other’s wrong-doings.
Be kind and let it be--it’s the right thing to do.
