Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Day of Humility Part I

Days of Humility are the days where people have every right to treat me like a jerk for compelling reasons, but instead they opt to show, through small and random acts of kindness, that the world is a good place with nice people in it.

The ability of a human being to return rage, ignorance and stupidity with love, understanding and patience is truly a superpower. Why don't they have an X-Man For that? They could call him MahaXma. Lame, I know

Interestingly enough, when we lapse sporadically into ignorant, stupid and rage filled behavior we can truly appreciate the superheroes in our life.

Uber Day of Deep Humility

My Carelessness rewarded with Patience and Understanding.

I got ready for my 10:30a.m. hair appointment which is on its third reschedule only to be called by the salon receptionist asking me why I missed my 9:30a.m. appointment.

She asked me to come in anyway, told me not to worry about it because they'll just call the next client and see if she can come in a little later.

When I walked in they said, very sincerely, that they were glad I could finally make it.


Impatience rewarded with Patience. Sort Of.

Had to fax papers for my husband at Kinko's.

I kept trying the stupid fax number over and over (and over) again on the Kinko's fax machine, but to no avail.

After a serious rant at my husband, I discovered that I had been dialing the main office number and not the one labeled FAX TO.

I was lucky enough to get away with a slightly disgusted eye roll.


Impatience rewarded with Love

A few minutes later, I found out my husband scheduled a massage for me for 4p.m. even though he has a terrible fever and would have to watch my three year old daughter who has also been sick.

Don't forget my scowling over the wrong fax number.

The man was a SAINT today.


Stupidity Rewarded with Kindness and Protection
.
Went back to Kinko's to fax the document and realized that I had left my Check Card in their machine the last time I was there.

Shuffled to the desk, tried not to act like the idiot I felt like and asked if anyone had turned it in. Someone did, in fact, turn it in.

The guy at the desk told me not to feel bad, it happens more often than I think. (This point will be disqualified if my check card turns out having charges for a Wii Fit and liposuction within the next week or so).


Carelessness Rewarded With Kindness.

Stopped to get groceries on the way home, was fumbling with my iPhone and dropped an extra large container of Yogurt that went splat all over the floor in WD, right in front of the guy who was restocking that section.

He smiled politely and very pleasantly said, "don't worry about it." And he looked like he meant it.



Cynics might suggest that the secondary characters mentioned in these humbling moments were just doing their jobs, which is true. But they didn't have to be so nice. No one was there to see if the smiles they gave were fake other than me. Given the fact that I knew I didn't deserve a smile in many of these cases, I would've picked up on the proverbial SEG.

People, when they had a choice, chose to be nice, and, in many cases, to a relative stranger.

I'm humbled by that today.

Tomorrow, I will resume being a stuck up suburbanite with a German car.

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7 Comments:

Blogger Avitable said...

Since I am already a perfect being, I never have those days of humility. I'm already full of grace and understanding.

Thursday, 28 August, 2008  
Blogger Faiqa said...

oh, you better watch. in the karmic cosmic scale a comment like that could get you a Year of Humility. I'm just sayin'.

Thursday, 28 August, 2008  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

dude...you can thank me for all those years of picking on you.. look what the removal of an aversive stimuli can do...

Thursday, 28 August, 2008  
Blogger Faiqa said...

look what the threat of posting embarrassing photos on the internet can do. slurp, slurp.

Thursday, 28 August, 2008  
Blogger Miss Britt said...

I have had to move beyond simple humility.

I now find I have to be eternally grateful "thank you, oh God, I'm sorry, thank you."

Excessive displays of asshatery will do that to you.

Thursday, 28 August, 2008  
Blogger Faiqa said...

asshatery. defintion, please.

Thursday, 28 August, 2008  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I liked this post it was sweet. Btw technically there was an X-men named “Empath”– but he was kind of an ass…surprise surprise…Don’t ask how I know this -:/ (I think it’s safe to just go with the general assumption of >nerd<).

Monday, 01 September, 2008  

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