By Bill Bradberry
Niagara Gazette
NIAGARA FALLS —
Have you seen the commercial, you know the one where someone does a kind thing for someone, and then that person does something thoughtful for someone else?
In one scene a man cautions a driver who while parking his car is about to back into a motorcycle, and in another, a man holds the elevator for a woman obviously in a hurry. Each one in turn, does something small but nice for someone else who then passes the goodwill on to the next person.
How cool is that!
I don’t have any idea what product the advertisement is trying to sell me, but I always watch it with rapt attention because it leaves me feeling good ... hopeful, in a better mood.
Unlike a lot of other television ads that are very effectively crafted to lure me into a fast food chain, a car dealership or a jewelry store, this one just makes me feel good, and it has even inspired me to look for opportunities to imitate the actors’ behavior and to observe instances of such conduct around me.
However, without searching I often find the opposite comportment no matter where I look.
I was at an airport not long ago when several dozens, if not hundreds of flights were cancelled due to weather. Most frequent travelers are used to it. I am, though I really don’t like it — but I’d rather be safe on the ground than flying in unsafe conditions, be they caused by nature or by the machines.
I can wait.
But holy smokes, I just could not believe how rude, impolite and downright vulgar some of us can become when we don’t get our way.
I had never seen so many people take absolute leave of their senses in all my life. Otherwise good-natured people with normally good manners suddenly devolved into some sort of Neanderthal caveman-like survival of the fittest, me first behavior.
No disrespect to the Neanderthals ...
But you don’t have to go to an airport to see what I mean about bad behavior, we see it in the extreme all around us all the time, and unfortunately it has crept into tolerance far too often.
At its most extreme, we read about it or see it in the media when someone becomes so outraged as to become verbally, or physically violent, and we see it in the lack of common courtesy and disrespect in everyday life all around us all the time.
But if you take the time to look you just might find what I saw last weekend while I was traipsing about town, not necessarily looking for it, but seeing it nonetheless.
For me it began when I was pulling out of a parking lot at a local business when someone pulled out in front of me almost causing an accident. We both slammed on the brakes and glared at each other for a brief moment.
I am sure we both considered shouting the usual profanities, but we didn’t. Instead, I leaned out the window and asked the other driver if he was alright, and he shouted back, “Sorry!”
That started it.
We could not get out of each other’s way, waving and smiling at each other as we moved in opposite directions.
I felt good, and I wanted to pass it on. My chance came a few hours later while I was in a local discount grocery store.
Okay, I was in Auldies’s again.
As I was hurriedly slinging my booty (groceries) unto the moving conveyor belt at the checkout line, one of the heavy bags of frozen something or other slipped off and fell onto the ankle of the poor lady in line ahead of me.
She immediately winced out loud, exclaiming that she had just had surgery on that leg and that I had now caused her excruciating pain.
You can imagine how I felt.
The way she was carrying on, I initially thought that I was going to be attacked, or worse, sued. Naturally I went straight into defense mode thinking, “Come on ... it can’t hurt THAT bad!”
But then that commercial kicked in. I thought better of the situation and I began to apologize profusely. She was not having it, she kept her back to me, all the while complaining to everyone around us. She was upset and apparently really hurt.
I felt worse, but I kept apologizing as she limped out of the store. The cashier looked at me as though I had been convicted of torturing helpless crippled grandmothers.
I could feel the heat of every shopper’s eyes on me as I stood there for an eternity waiting for the clerk to cash me out before I crept my way out into the blustery cold parking lot.
She was still loading her groceries into her car when I approached her, looked her in the eyes and apologized again offering to help. This time she turned to me and told me that she was alright, but that she had been having a tough time lately, that everything seemed to be going wrong, and that the accident in the store was just one more thing in her difficult day.
She said though, that she really appreciated the fact that someone would take the time to see about her, to show that they cared, then she smiled, got into her car and wished me a good day!
Now THAT’S what I’m talking about.
I saw it again the next day when a young man, stopped at an intersection near the hospital noticed a young lady trying to push an elderly woman in a wheelchair, over the curb, up onto the sidewalk. The young lady was really having a hard time. I was in traffic, unable to get to them.
But the young man, who might have looked to some like any stereotypical thug, got out of his SUV and helped them, much to their surprise.
I caught up with him, gave him a “thumbs up” and kept going, feeling pretty dadgum good.
But it was the precious moment in the laundromat that really lifted my spirits.
I had a huge pile of winter stuff that is way too big for my little home washer so I took it to one of those gigantic front-loaders for a good Spring cleaning before they got packed away for the season.
I watched a very frazzled mom with three adorable children trying to make their way out with more bags and clothes than I could imagine having to launder.
As they were about to leave, a little girl no more than 5 or 6 years old ran frantically toward the door to catch them.
“Wait a minute, wait a minute” she pleaded as she handed one of the younger little girls with the departing family, her doll.
The mother, obviously grateful, thanked the girl, and the little girl who almost left her doll behind stood there for a moment, then she hugged the other one with her smile before the two of them ran along in different directions, both headed the right way ...
Contact Bill at: bill.bradberry@yahoo.com.
