It’s All About You
It’s
All About You
Six percent of Americans are said to
be full of it.
Themselves.
These folks are
claimed to believe the world revolves solely around them and they care little
about anyone else. That means 94% (of
us, of course) are always nice, caring and focused on others, willing to
help etc. It makes you feel warm and fuzzy inside, or
does it ?
A senior-citizen supermarket shopper
collapses slowly slumping down to the bottom of his cart where you put the big
stuff. A fellow shopper standing less
than six feet away rushes to help the patron and calls for the manager. You can
tell he’s in the 94 percentile. Right on
Bro!
The trouble is it doesn't happen.
The grocery shopper nearby is apparently temporarily blinded by the glare
from the refrigerator’s glass door as he reaches for the cottage cheese. (Small
curd because it is lower in calories, and something tells you it was the right
choice.) The calorie-counter looks straight ahead and just walks away. “I see nothing.” TY, Sgt Schultz.
A middle-aged woman with a cart a little farther down the aisle gets a brief over-her-shoulder look at the stricken shopper now hugging the floor and
rushes to his aide. Women – always there, willing to help. That’s why so many
are nurses. The Fruit-Loops in her cart tells me she must be a “mom.” I
have tears in my eyes. She’s in the 94 percentile for sure.
Wrong again Bullwinkle. She drops the
cart into “Low,” puts the peddle to the metal and burns rubber putting as much distance between herself and
the floor hugger as fast as she can. Perhaps she is a member of the 94% group
but concerned for her own safety and
suspects a Sarin gas attack . That N95 mask she has been wearing for the last
two years just would not “cut it.” But she does go to get help at the register.
Nope - got you again. She just checks out. Traumatized, she’s now mute and says
nothing to the woman at the check- out. So sad.
(Another shopper comes to the man’s
aid and calls the paramedics.)
Driving down the street, I saw something unusual in the middle of the
road. Motorists were driving around it. It looked like it was important. I
stopped and picked it up. Turns out It was a salesman’s portfolio full of signed
orders, prospect information and checks. I thought the owner was going to cry
when I returned it. I could only imagine having to go back to customers asking
them for new deposits and to re-sign contracts. He insisted on rewarding me and I repeatedly refused – but he stuffed a
$20 bill in my shirt pocket.
You might believe you are very
open-minded (and compared to others, you may be. You might put emphasis on
helping other people and doing nice things. You might be a giver who offers
time, skills and money expecting nothing back. You might even be someone who
can often see both sides of the story and all of this is great, but you can
never be totally and completely free of the thoughts and beliefs that cloud
your view. It’s physically impossible to walk in someone else’s shoes. You will
always filter the view. It is important to recognize this filter dynamic is
happening and try to be as objective and outward-looking as possible. And
that’s precisely why I don’t judge those who did not come to the aide of the
stricken grocer’s patron or did not bother to stop and check out the sizeable
portfolio laying in the middle of the road. I did not think of them as being selfish
or uncaring. There were probably other factors that stymied any inclination to
physically help.
Some folks have social anxiety. The
idea of interacting with others or being in the spotlight is very daunting.
Others don’t react to a situation because they doubt their own abilities. And
there are those who fear getting “involved.”
Your life is about you; it must be. And
you want a happy life, everyone does, but the richest lives
are those that are enhanced by the happiness that comes your way when you give
of yourself and help others. It’s
not the money, although you might get a yuppie food stamp ( $20) stuffed into your pocket. Don’t be too quick,
however, to immediately judge someone
who does not think or act as you do. The
truth is that no one looks out at the world with a totally objective, open-minded viewpoint.
Meme:
You would be correct in assuming I
was the one who came to the aid of the stricken shopper, but I had previous
training and experience.
Call us crazy because we are not wealthy but we always have a 2 dollar bill in both my wife's sun visor and mine so when we can .. we will give one sometimes 2 of them to the folks you see in the middle of the street at the stop lights. We get different responses from "wow, a 2 dollar bill, I will keep it because it means good luck" to thank you or thank you God bless. $2 does not go far these days but just the same if they get enough of them perhaps a meal or... their next drug hit. Being in the Red Cross disaster service as a volunteer for over 50 years you learn not to judge people and be concerned how they will spend the money. That is their choice and their responsibility but if it is just a tiny little help, we are all for it. Some of the well known charities have a 82% overhead with 18% going to the charity benefactor, ours has 0% overhead...
ReplyDeleteTypically we do not tell people what we do and that is just fine.... Anonymous :)
I spent a few years with the ARC as a disaster service volunteer as well. The $2 bill was reintroduced in 1976 as part of the U.S. Bicentennial celebration, featuring a redesigned portrait of Thomas Jefferson on the front and an engraving of the signing of the Declaration of Independence on the back. While the reissue sparked some curiosity and temporary interest, it never became popular. Many folks just saved them - like me. I worked in banking and when they came in you could take them to the post office, place a postage stamp on the bill, and the PO would cancel it showing proof of the date of re-issue. I keep a $5 bill ready but I am more scrutinizing. I look at the shoes and if he smokes - hard habit to break for sure but at $12-$14 per pack, I am not going to support his habit.
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