The Jerk Store Called....

I have a friend, let's call her Brenda (because that is her name). She has a really nice email signature that says, "Let There be Peace on Earth, and Let it Begin with Me."  I really like that message and  nod in agreement reading it and my inner voice will say, "Yes! Me, too! I will help to create peace!" But I always sort of thought that this applies to Big Deals in the world, like wars and 9/11 and large-scale things of that nature that I really have no influence over so it's just a gratuitous thought with no real application to me. I just promise not to start a Holy War, and then pat myself on the back and call it good. 

I also like to think that I'm all zen and kind, too, I mean whattheheck, I go and visit the Mother's from India who hug it out and pray for my peaceful soul and have been in the presence of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, and not only read Eat, Pray, Love, but I saw the movie, too. The horrible horrible movie. Ergo, because I've done all those things, I like to think I am spiritually evolving. But just because I've seen The Dalai Lama doesn't mean I am the Dalai Lama, and every once in a while my real asshole nature will rear it's head and present a teaching moment for myself, should I be so inclined to listen.

Today I had a Teaching Moment. 

Because my new new washer didn't arrive on Saturday, they pushed delivery to Sunday. And the automated phone message told me to expect my Sunday delivery between 10:30 and 1:00. Then 2:00 came around and no washer appeared. So I called HH Gregg to find out whad'up, cause I have things to do (including a play I wanted to attend at 2:00), and I am very important and my time cannot be squandered. Ahem. As I sit here on the Internet...

The gal on the phone apologized for my inconvenience, but then informed me that my scheduled delivery was actually between 2:00 and 5:30. The automated machine was wrong. And then I sort of went off on her and lambasted her that if they knew there was a problem with the automated messages why didn't they call the people getting deliveries this morning and let us know. Which I still sort of stand by that comment, because really it's just good manners. And I'm all about good manners, especially when I'm yelling into the phone at a stranger who has zero control and is just trying to apologize. I got a lot of pent up words out and even said something along the lines of, "I couldn't care less about your apology, that's not doing me a bit of actual good."  She responded, "I am offering you an apology from the heart, and I will not stay on the phone with you any longer getting disrespected."

Right there, Reader. My Teaching Moment. 

I was taking out a bunch of annoyance on another human being just because I was inconvenienced. She apologized from her heart and I was too busy being an asshole to take it. 

I regrouped. And then I apologized for being an asshole, and owned the fact that I had no right to verbally treat her with such disdain and I had created a big to-do out of absolutely nothing important at all - so I was a little inconvenienced, didn't get to a show I wanted to see, whatever - life goes on and that little blip of lost time won't even matter at the end of it all.  

It's just easy to get caught up in the "I'm more important than you!" mentality. I got swept up in myself and needed someone to innocently and unknowingly bring me back. She's just a girl, trying to earn a living to take care of whatever it is in her life that needs taking care of, and probably would have rather been doing something else on a Sunday afternoon than talking to me. So who am I to act like that. Shame on me. 

She ended up refunding the delivery fee, which I said didn't matter because I had a rebate for it anyway, but now I guess I don't have to fill out the paperwork for it so she saved me some hassle. 

Let there be peace in Parma. And let it begin with me treating the people that cross my path with courtesy and kindness. 


....they were running outta me.