"The masses are asses."

Yesterday at work, when I went out to get the bookdrop, I saw that an older man had stalled in the parking lot, in the flow of traffic.

As I got closer, I saw that he was riding on a donut tire that was shot and he was actually down to his rim. 

A car was approaching and I waved at the man driving to stop because my little guy was trying to move his car which sometimes wouldn't even start.  He got it started but the man I tried to stop whizzed past me and the man, causing him to stall.

He started up again and I told him I'd give him a push.  This time I made a more assertive sign to the next car and the woman did stop and wait for me to push the car to a safer place in the parking lanes.

That was when one of the men who veritably live in the library came over and asked what was happening and offered his opinion about the state of the car.  I told him about the man who almost ran us both down and he quoted this, "The masses are asses."

Satisified that his opinion had been given, he went inside the library.

Having gotten the old fellow and his car out of traffic, I went back to my work.

He was still there, sitting in his car, when I came back from lunch so I took him a bottle of cold water I keep in the refrigerator for guests (or people who need it.) 

I took him another bottle of water about two hours later when there was finally a moment to do so. (We'd been closed for a day and a half and it was insane inside with only three of us working.)

He sat in the heat in his car until the day was almost over.  When we left, he was gone, but his car was still there.  In the small patch of shade... in the lane of traffic, where he had moved it after I pushed him into the parking slots.

I wonder, in this tiny "village" full of churches, if anyone else ever stopped to talk to him.

 

I didn't start out to talk about the little guy in the parking lot.  I wanted to talk about how inconsiderate, ignorant and rude people can be to our fellow man, especially behind the wheel..  I also wanted to say a word about how nice it is when someone is kind.   However, I am tired this morning.  And you already know about rudeness.

It's funny though.  I rarely ever find people rude in person.  Put them in a car though, a 2000-or-more pound death machine and it's "F*** you, World!"  "I don't have to stop for lights or signs.  I can side-swipe a pedestrian.  I'm more important!  I am in a hurry to get where I'm going because I want to be there already!"

These are the same people that talk on their cell phones in the library, in restaurants, in church.  These are the same people that let their kids run and scream and climb on things in public places.

These are the same people who, though very nice when I talk to them, step in front of a single line to get to the other check-out station that the lat person from the single line has just left while three other people turn to look at each other.

These people's kids are the ones that fill the personal space of someone they do not know who is checking out books, or who wait at the far end of the desk instead of walking in front of the check-out line where we can actually see that they want something.

When I was in fourth grade, we had telephone etiquette lessons in class.  Why don't they do that anymore?

When I was in sixth grade, our Math teacher taught us how to write out checks and  record deposits and withdrawals in the register.

Somehow along the way I was taught that following rules that are within reason is moral, fair and kind.  I was also taught to question authority when appropriate.  I was taught that the law can bend.  I was taught that curtain of rules can be lifted with kindness to help people out.  And I was taught that one side of a story is just one side of a story.

I also learned that people are both cruel and kind and sometimes being hard is the best thing you can do for someone's welfare.  (You know, like that song: "You've got to be cruel to be kind, in the right measure....")

But I have hope.  People have always complained, always said that society is getting worse and that their time was better.  In Ancient Rome, someone once wrote how they admired the wall when it was forced to stand under the weight of so much graffiti.

Everything old is new again.  We're all the same.  When we're not being selfishly-bad, we're good.