"Only be careful, and watch yourselves closely that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them sup from your hearts as long as you live. Teach them to your children and their children after them."
-Deuteronomy 4:9
hello again.
yes i know. it has been many moons since i spoke to you last, and a lot has transpired in that time. in the last year i lost a job but then gained a new one. last december me and my unnecessary knowledge of hardware landed at target. i became a cashier at what was probably the worst time to do so. or perhaps the best, because this particular post probably wouldn't have happened otherwise. but anyway, i digress, which tends to happen from time to time. like just now.
pull it together, mike....
anyway, i saw things that stunned me beyond belief. most notably, a busy day at my old job was a slow day at target. i had never seen so many people in one place. most of them were there to gather last minute gifts for christmas. and many of them brought their kids, which brings me to the point of this post...yes, contrary to what my earlier ramblings might have suggested, i am going somewhere with this.
it is obvious that no one person is made the same or is raised the same way as another. however, for some odd reason, almost all the parents in target during this time had one thing in common...their children were OUT OF CONTROL!!!!!!!!!!!! everytime i looked around there was a little boy or girl running or yelling or many times both.
i remember one day in particular. there was a lady who came through my line which, if i may point out, was an express line. as she approached with her cart as full as it could be without the sides buckling, i knew there was trouble. she wore this facial expression that i could not readily assess. it was somewhere between "i'm really not equipped to handle people today" and "somebody cut the cheese in a room completely devoid of windows or proper ventilation and i was the one who got caught downwind of it."
she had a son who couldn't be more than five or six. while steering the cart with her right hand, she held her son's hand in a such a way that their was seemingly no way he could get out.
seemingly.
however, it didn't take long before he took off, somehow slipping out of the chuck norris death grip she had on his hands. i asked her how she was doing, and in response she shot me a death glare that would make jason voorhees piddle on himself. it was both heartbreaking and hilarious watching her attempt to reaffirm her grip on some sense of composure whilst Hiroshima in Huggies had a field day with the batteries on a nearby endcap. its the simple things, i suppose.
the tab broke $200 before half the cart had been emptied. i asked if she wanted a gift receipt with any of her items. in response, she borderline yelled, "does it look like i want a gift receipt?"
now, common sense would suggest that if you have a cart stocked full of toys, there might be a slight chance that it's not all going to the same kid, right? then again, common sense ain't all that common place anymore, now is it?
the reason i tell this story is because there was a point where not only was this woman cross with me, but with the unfortunate fellow who put a ring on it and procreated with her. she grabbed her son from batteries and answered her blackberry and went on a 2 or 3 minute expletive laden tirade about the same little boy who was now within earshot of his mother's pleasent little soliloquy.
where am i going with this?
i remember being that little boy. in those days, they thought i had adhd because of how much i ran around tirelessly. but one thing never changed. whenever my mom was in a line with me, what i did or how her day went never changed the way she treated people. she was always and still is a lady. and i attribute my unwavering respect for my fellow man to it. yes, i ran around a lot, but i was still paying attention. i watched how she treated people. i fear for that little boy's future. parents are the lecture and the child is always taking mental notes...always. how they treat people, how they think, even how they view the world is based on the picture painted by the parent. what my mom did when i was just a boy of 6 informs how i conduct myself as a man standing on the edge of 22. my wish is simply this: be the kind of person you want your kids to be. be the example. be the man or the woman. and if you grew up like me with a parent that showed you how to do things the right way, then give them a hug. because you know you wouldn't have gotten there without them.
thats all i got for now. leave a comment or two, if you don't mind.
L8r.
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