Trying my kindness

My current mantra these days is "Be Kind."  In other words, just be nice to people.  Let them go first at the stop sign, smile and wave when people smile at you, don't scowl, don't be grumpy.  If everyone was kind, the world would be a nicer place, less hostile, less angry.  Well, at least that's the theory.

However, my attempt at random kindness has been a failed attempt most days.  I won't quit the new regime but I am beginning to realize that my kindness isn't going to make a bit of difference in this crazy world. Take today, for example.  Just on the drive from Santa Rosa to Healdsburg this afternoon I encountered several acts of down-right mean behavior.  There are two lanes for non-carpool drivers.  There are two cars, one in each of those lanes, driving ten miles under the speed limit, both side by side, ignoring the increasing back-up behind each of them.  Do people never look in their rear view mirrors anymore?  Can they not see that they are blocking traffic?  Guess not.

At the grocery store, where there are many places to put your grocery cart once you have emptied it, why do people still leave their cart right in the middle of a parking space?  If you have the power to push that cart to your car, you most certainly have a little more power to push it to the cart corral, just another ten feet away.  And at that same grocery store, if I am slowly pulling out of my parking space, why is it that people ignore my car and zip around me or stop three feet from my car, thus forcing me to pull back into the parking space and wait for them to either park or drive down the aisle?  What does this gain anyone?

At the post office, after waiting in line for several minutes, as soon as it was my turn the postal clerk puts the "Closed" sign on his station and walks away.  I realize that perhaps he had to use the bathroom or needed a break, but he could have said something like "Sorry, I just need to close for a few minutes."  But no, nothing. It was as if I was invisible.

The gas station was the final straw.  I pull in, see a spot, maneuver around an aisle and just as I am beginning to pull into the spot to get gas, a guy comes from the other side and takes that spot! OK, he's a jerk, I get that.  So I turn around and start to back into another spot, clearly aiming for the gas pumps when a woman zips right in, taking my place at the pump.  She knew I was angling for that pump, she just got there first.  That was it, I lost my temper. In the privacy of my own car, with the windows up (AC on) I totally swore at her and I hope she could read my lips.  The F word is easy to lip-read.  Especially when a person says it about ten times.

Oh, yes, I will continue my quest for kindness and I will try not to become jaded or cynical (HA!) or grouchy.  If only everyone else would play along, it would be so much easier.

Sigh.