We all know that patience is a virtue. Those of you who know me also know that, virtuous or not, it's not one of my strengths. But it's something I need to work on, other wise I would miss out on a lot of really great moments. For example...
Every time my daughter ends up at the grocery store, she asks for a Care Bear out of the machine in the lobby. Any most of the time she gets two. She's spoiled and rotten as all get out for it, but hey, you'll have that. Anyway, last night we made a trip into the grocery store, and she got herself a Care Bear toy.
Now, during this time of collecting, she has been trying to get all 8 varieties, but really wants two specific bears. The dark pink one, and the dark blue one. She has managed to get several of each of the other 6 types, but no luck on the two she doesn't have. It's really kind of becoming an obsession. When we walk in, we get one, and it's a third copy of the orange one she has. She's happy she got one, but she wants me to put it in my pocket because she's just not that interested in more of the usual. She's 4, it's really kind of hard to fault her for that.
Anyway, we do our grocery shopping and as I go to pay, I notice that I have a dollar in my wallet. It shouldn't be any problem to turn this dollar into quarters and get my daughter, who is at this point talking the ears off anybody who comes within 50 feet of her, our cashier not withstanding. After I pay for our groceries, I ask the cashier if she can give me change for a dollar. She, in not so nice a fashion, tells me if I want change I have to go to another register, and points me in the right direction.
This is where that patience thing comes into play. I start getting frustrated almost immediately. I am not going to waste my time walking around, just because you can't count out 4 quarters. Miraculously I don't say this to the lady. My daughter and I then make our way to this second register, which is not open, but has a sign directing us to a third register for "any of your check cashing needs". I don't really need a check cashed I just need some quarters, but whatever.
More frustration.
I then get to the tertiary register to find a line. Ok, another set back, but we'll survive. Until the cashier walks away for what appears to be no reason, leaving this line of people to fend for ourselves.
More frustration.
I'm to the point now where I look down at my daughter and tell her we're going to have to skip our second Care Bear and head home. She's sad, but understanding. On our way out the second register is now staffed, with a person counting money at it. We walk up to it and I start to ask for quarters, since the drawer is already open. I get to the "Can I get..." part before I am interrupted. "It's going to be a minute!"
More frustration.
I then wait with what little patience I have left for this person to finish counting her money and closing her drawer. When she asks what I need I say, I just need quarters and hand her my dollar. She informs me she will have to call someone over to open her drawer. The drawer that as just open.
More frustration.
I finally get my quarter and am so frustrated and fed up I can barely see straight. We're on our way out and my daughter grabs my hand and yanks me over to the Care Bear machine. We put our hard won quarters in and she helps me turn the handle. And wouldn't you know it, the elusive dark pink Care Bear makes an appearance. My daughter is ecstatic. She starts running circles around the vestibule, she starts screaming and jumping up and down. She is hugging her little plastic egg thing to her chest, elated that she has the dark pink Care Bear.
All of my frustration melts away in an instant. My daughter is the happiest she's been all day. Possibly all week. All because of 3 quarters and a plastic Care Bear.
Patience. I see the virtue in it. And I see why it is some important to have it, use it, and make it a part of every situation we find ourselves in. Now I just need to find a way to cultivate that in my own life, so I can share more moments like this with the people I love.
Thursday, September 25, 2014
Thursday, September 18, 2014
Global Logistics
This is a subject I touch on a lot, but it's been a while since I've take a few moments to reflect publicly on the subject, and I think it's something we often have a tendency to lose perspective on.
As some of you know, I work retail for a living. Recently, while putting up some freight, I came across a pen in a box of shoes. The pen had obviously not been placed their intentionally, and my assumption is that it fell out of a shirt pocket of an employee and the packaging location for that particular pair of shoes. As I was busy that day, I just grabbed the pen and put it in my pocket. Later, as I got to thinking about it more closely, I pulled the pen back out and looked at it in a different light.
This pen once belonged to a factory worker, somewhere out there. There was a worker out there, somewhere, who had at some point in the not so distant past, found themselves in the same position I often find myself in...looking everywhere for my pen that has miraculously disappeared. The difference is usually my pen ends up in a drawer in my office, this persons pen ended up in the hands of a retail manager in central Indiana. This pen, had found it's way across the country, into my hands of all the places it could have been sent. This pen was now an actual tangible connection between myself, and the person who used to own it. My life, and their life are now in the smallest of ways, connected, and all because of a lost pen.
I don't know who that individual is, and I may never know, but I do know that it's a bit awe inspiring to think about the implications of it. How many people that we will never know, are we connected to in the same way? Who packaged the computer you are reading this on? Who was the person who stocked the coffee mug you drink out of each morning onto the retail shelf you purchased it from? Who are you connected to, and in what ways?
Everything is part of the same web. Everybody is part of the massive Global Organism that our modern world has not only created, but perpetuated without most of our even noticing. But it is certainly something worth taking note of. This phenomenon is an opportunity to stay connected on a global scale, with the remainder of our kind...people.
I left my pen on a table in a McDonalds in Frankfort Indiana. I don't know what has happened to my pen since that day several weeks ago, but I know that by placing it there, I've made myself a part of bigger adventure than I can ever begin to imagine. Perhaps my pen was picked up by a truck driver on his way through town and is not resting in the center console of his rig. Perhaps it was picked up by a stay at home mom who now uses it every week to fill out her grocery list. Perhaps it was simply thrown in the trash. I don't know where it came from, and I don't know where it's gone, but I do know that for the briefest of times, it was with me. And whether for good or ill, I had an effect. The smallest of effects, but still an effect.
As some of you know, I work retail for a living. Recently, while putting up some freight, I came across a pen in a box of shoes. The pen had obviously not been placed their intentionally, and my assumption is that it fell out of a shirt pocket of an employee and the packaging location for that particular pair of shoes. As I was busy that day, I just grabbed the pen and put it in my pocket. Later, as I got to thinking about it more closely, I pulled the pen back out and looked at it in a different light.
This pen once belonged to a factory worker, somewhere out there. There was a worker out there, somewhere, who had at some point in the not so distant past, found themselves in the same position I often find myself in...looking everywhere for my pen that has miraculously disappeared. The difference is usually my pen ends up in a drawer in my office, this persons pen ended up in the hands of a retail manager in central Indiana. This pen, had found it's way across the country, into my hands of all the places it could have been sent. This pen was now an actual tangible connection between myself, and the person who used to own it. My life, and their life are now in the smallest of ways, connected, and all because of a lost pen.
I don't know who that individual is, and I may never know, but I do know that it's a bit awe inspiring to think about the implications of it. How many people that we will never know, are we connected to in the same way? Who packaged the computer you are reading this on? Who was the person who stocked the coffee mug you drink out of each morning onto the retail shelf you purchased it from? Who are you connected to, and in what ways?
Everything is part of the same web. Everybody is part of the massive Global Organism that our modern world has not only created, but perpetuated without most of our even noticing. But it is certainly something worth taking note of. This phenomenon is an opportunity to stay connected on a global scale, with the remainder of our kind...people.
I left my pen on a table in a McDonalds in Frankfort Indiana. I don't know what has happened to my pen since that day several weeks ago, but I know that by placing it there, I've made myself a part of bigger adventure than I can ever begin to imagine. Perhaps my pen was picked up by a truck driver on his way through town and is not resting in the center console of his rig. Perhaps it was picked up by a stay at home mom who now uses it every week to fill out her grocery list. Perhaps it was simply thrown in the trash. I don't know where it came from, and I don't know where it's gone, but I do know that for the briefest of times, it was with me. And whether for good or ill, I had an effect. The smallest of effects, but still an effect.
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