Social Consciousness, civility and a bit of good old me second attitude.

I was in Costco the other day picking up a few things when I heard a ruckus just behind me in the check out line. I turned around to see what was going on and here was this irate guy screaming at a couple who had moved past him the line.

The female partner of this duo was looking rather embarrassed as her husband continued to discuss in no uncertain terms what he had apparently instigated.

What happened was that the perturbed gentleman, who had been pushing a rather large orange dolly, loaded to the hilt with groceries, had left the line, sans his orange dolly, to go and get something he had forgotten.

Upon seeing the unfolding situation, the couple behind him moved ahead of the orange dolly with their shopping cart and proceeded to check out.

On his return, the orange dolly owner saw immediately what had happened and started a long stream of adjectives to describe what this couple could do with their lives.

Now, I must inject that this whole incident was not dialogued in English, but in Spanish. I have lived in Latin America for 30 years, and I speak Spanish fluently.

Before this entire scene was finished, several other people in line had offered their opinion about this unfolding drama.

I will not repeat what they said, but the conclusion was that the audience had decided that Latin America is like it is because of this attitude amongst its inhabitance.

Though I can see a certain merit to their summation, I don’t entirely agree with it.

We need to calm down and be just a bit more understanding and generous with our fellow man. Yes the guy was wrong to leave the check out line to go after something he had forgotten, but the time he was gone was a matter of minutes.

I am sure that if he had told the couple behind him that he had forgotten something and that he would be right back, they would have understood. And yes the couple, who were also loaded down with groceries, was wrong to simply move ahead, without consideration for the other guy’s dilemma, this whole incident could have ended very differently.

Don’t you think that we can all try to be just a little kinder with our fellow man? After all what’s the big deal? It’s just the right thing to do.