Which are you today?

Allow me to demonstrate, using anecdotes from my lunch at Quiznos, the difference between nice people who make the world a better place and assholes who make me want to hurt them. I encountered two very different people at lunch today. Though they were both male, both approximately in their 40s, and both appearing to be white-collar professionals, their demeanors couldn't have been more different.

Person 1:
- walks in front of my car while I try to park
- ignores his friend who draws his attention to me
- gives me an "I don't give a shit" look
- slowly saunters through the open parking spot I'm waiting to get into
- refuses to make eye contact with Quiznos employee, choosing instead to stare up at the menu
- responds to Quiznos employee's friendly "Hi, how are you today?" with "I'll take a chicken carbanara" and continued refusal of eye contact
- doesn't pay for a drink, grabs a cup for "water" and fills with clear soda (I can't verify this one, but I'm pretty sure)

Person 2:
- gets in line behind me, a stranger, and says "Hi, how are you?"
- responds to my "Fine, you?" with "I'm cold!" and accentuates with full-body shiver
- continues to engage me in polite small talk until it's my turn to order
- pays for his companion (I assume coworker)'s meal
- kindly ignores objections from companion, insisting he's "got it"

Okay so maybe Person 1 got in a fight with his wife this morning and found out he lost a big account at work and wasn't really in the mood to be polite to strangers. And maybe Person 2 found out early this morning that his first grandson was born and he heard from his coworker that he was going to get that promotion at work and was in a particularly jovial mood. But I still think people who show genuine kindness make the world a better place, and I still want to hurt people who act like assholes, no matter what the reasons.

Comments

[Jess]

I whole-heartedly agree! I want to stomp their guts out and claw at their eyes - assholes!

Although, do you ever encounter the person who is, as you say, jovial all the freaking time? It's like you wonder if they are just naturally happy or their life is particularly fantastic or they are just jolly people. I wish I could be that way all the time too. Then I remember, I'm female, I'm hormonal and, damn it, I can't help it the assholes and dumb people piss me off a lot. =)

I do enjoy, at the very least, politeness from stangers. An simple, "Oh, pardone me" or "Excuse me" is nice. Instead of brushing right by in my view or running into me and giving ME the dirty look. And I particularly enjoy the type that you encountered. It's nice to know that those people still exist in the world of hurry, crazy and chaos.

[willikat]

so weird!!! my mom and i were just talking about this and so were william and i. if someone i'm with (dating or otherwise) is mean to waitstaff or other servicepeople, it's a dealbreaker for me. in my building, where lots and lots of people work, the jimmy johns employees once told me that i was their favorite customer because i said "thank you". sad that i stood out for that, right?

[MrsTwink]

I couldn't agree more!

I never understand the purpose of being rude to people (unless they deserve it). I'm always polite, give the right of way, say Hello, smile, respond to "how are you?"... there are a ton of people in my office who walk around like their dog just died... EVERYDAY. And I always make it a point to say, "HELLO!" They probably hate me. Oh well!

There is no sense in wasting your time being an awful person.

Now if a person were to cut me off in traffic... well, that's a different story.