October 03/13
I am a judgemental person by nature and craft.
As I make my merry way through life I observe and make comment to myself about all I see happening around me, whether it is a person, plant, animal, or object. It is the nature of the beast called Marcus to do this and I make no bones about it, in fact since you've read this blog you've been given ample forewarning and should never attempt to feign surprise from this moment forward.
I will judge you when we first meet.
Simple fact and something to be prepared to undergo.
Will I share my observations and judgement with you? Probably not, unless I find them in the extreme one way or the other.
What shall I be judging you on you may be wondering.
Will it be your looks? Possibly in a some manner, after all, we are all looking for that spark and part of it does come from the physical.
Will it be your income level? Not at all. I don't care how much money you make as long as you aren't expecting to be taken care of in any monetary way. I take care of myself financially and expect nothing more or less from any potential partner.
Will it be on who you know? Nope. Don't care and name dropping won't impress me in the least. At the end of the day I don't care what the Kardashians are doing, who is dating who in Tinsel Town, or even who is doing what around the world. We all put our clothes on the same way and I'll never understand the fascination with celebrities.
Will it be on how you spend your free time? Sure, sometimes I'll think things to myself about what you are doing. But since I am an avid golfer who spends as much time on a course as possible around my work and parental commitments, who am I to render a harsh judgement if you like power walking or shopping or meeting friends for coffee.
Will I judge you on how you treat people?
You better damn well believe I will. Hopefully I'll get the opportunity to see you interact without even knowing I'm around.
Why is this a big deal to me? Mostly because I've met my fair share of people who are fake or downright condescending to those they feel are their inferiors.
I've watched a date talk down to a server in a pub as if she couldn't write down a simple order. It left me feeling so angry that I ended the date then and there, walked over to the server and paid the tab in full and left a larger than normal gratuity to try and make amends for the shitty way she'd been treated.
How people treat one another isn't limited to the customer verbally abusing the worker but also goes both ways. Two weeks ago I was in a Mac's with my son getting us some cold drinks and a young women was in front of us in line with a bag of milk. She only had change with which to pay and appeared to be a single mom trying to make ends meet. She was clearly embarrassed to be paying in quarters, dimes, and nickels, and dropped some of the money on the floor. As she bent down to pick it up the clerk made a comment about not having all day and there being other customers waiting to pay looking in the direction of my son and I. The young lady looked up at us and turned bright red and that made me really mad. I turned to my son and told him to go out to the car and bring me the plastic ice cream container on the floor behind my seat. He smiled and ran out to the car. The clerk looked at me kind of confused and I just looked at the young girl picking up her change and winked at her.
My son came back in and handed me the container and then proceeded to help the woman pick up her change. I stepped up and politely asked if I could pay for my purchases while things got straightened out with the dropped coins. The clerk saw my $20 bill and said of course and rang up my purchases as $4.75
I put the $20 back in my pocket, opened up the container and began to count out the amount owed in nickels and dimes. The clerk asked me why I wasn't using the $20 bill? I looked at her and asked if my paying in change somehow made me a lesser customer? She said of course not! I asked what made me better than the young lady buying milk with change? She had no answer.
I made my purchase and added the cost of the milk to it as well.
As I walked out of the store I could hear the person behind me paying with all of her spare change as well.
My son smiled at me and told me he got the lesson I was trying to make and that confused me as I wasn't trying to teach him any lesson. Before I could reply he smiled and nodded towards someone outside my car door so I turned around to see the young lady smiling at us and mouthing the words "thank you" as she passed us on the sidewalk.
I've not been back to that particular Mac's since other than to stop by the next day when the manager was there to tell him about the little encounter in the hopes he might have a talk with the clerk.
I made a judgement about the clerk that day before she even dealt with me.
Will I do that again in the future?
You can bet the mortgage money on it!
No comments:
Post a Comment