After a long day at school, I shouldered my way through crowded Hy-Vee shopping. The check-out lines were three deep. Few people seem to understand what six feet is.
I was about to begin transferring my groceries onto the belt when a woman from behind said, "Excuse me! May I slip in ahead of you?" She held up her two items and gave me a cloying shrug.
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I have many times noticed people with only a few items behind my overflowing cart and invited them to go ahead of me. I am, on my better days, a fairly nice person.
But I was tired. I wanted to get out of Hy-Vee every bit as much as my fellow late-Monday shoppers.
Still, I might have responded graciously. I want to think I would have.
But she wasn't wearing a mask.
This boiled my blood. She was asking me to do a small thing to make her life easier (let her go ahead of me in line), while refusing to do a small thing (wear a mask) to make my day less tense and our community safer.
This struck me as incredibly selfish.
As she checked out, she turned to me twice to deliver a cheerful (unmasked) "Thank you!"
I stepped back and turned my face away. My eyes were not smiling. I was not my better angel.
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Driving home I was angry. Yes, at the woman's behavior, but also at her exposing of my failure of equanimity. These days are hard on all of us. We have to dig deep when our wells of goodness are frankly quite dry.
I do not want to feel an us-vs-them mentality in combatting this virus, but that's exactly what I felt tonight.
Enough.
Be well.
Write.
Allison
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| Little Wolf man and his pretty mama on their South Island adventure. |
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