Too Busy For Love

On Saturday, my husband and I were out shopping in between a movie and dinner plans.  We were in the store just picking up a couple of last minute things.  The store was very busy as you would expect.

As we were standing at the register to check out, we were talking about different things.  What else we needed to get.  What we were doing the rest of the holiday.  Not paying much attention to anything as we waited in line.  As we got to the check out, I noticed for one brief second a store employee taking away a cart that was in front of us.  It had supplies for Christmas dinner, a turkey and all that goes with it.  I didn't see a customer with it.  My husband said that there might have been some problem with the person's card.

In that moment, I was struck by several things.  One was that I realized that I was so caught up in my own plans and self that I didn't even notice that this person had an issue in front of us.  I had become so caught up in the trappings of Christmas that I was too busy to see something that Christmas is really all about.  The second thing was that we should pay for this person's groceries because THIS is what Christmas is about.  Love, sharing, caring for others, giving of yourself and your time and your money so that someone else feels loved.  By the time both of these things sunk in, the cart was gone, the person was no where to be seen and I was left feeling like I had missed an opportunity to share the real meaning of Christmas.

Too often, and not just at Christmas time, we get caught up in our own lives and business and forget that our greatest calling in this life is to share love with others.  To share that love with ALL others.  It is because we, as a people, have stopped sharing love that our society is in such chaos.  We are too busy.  We are too selfish. We only want to love those who are like us or those who we feel deserve it.  We exclude some from love because they are different.  Because they don't look like us, believe like us, live like us.

The true meaning of Christmas is that love is for ALL.  Perhaps if we all were to stop living our own lives for just a few minutes and found a way to love others, this world would be a completely different place.  We can't wait for someone else to do it.  We must do it within ourselves.  I do it, you do it, someone else does it and soon everyone is doing it.  It will change not only someone else's life but your own as well.

Take the time so that we are never too busy for love.

How Rude!

Over the past few years I have noticed a trend that seems to be growing every day and that trend is people being rude.  Manners, tact, kindness, decency have taken a back seat to rude, unthinking, mean, and generally low class behavior and not just among the young.

Working in a high school I get to see every possible kind of behavior one can imagine on a daily basis.  It is displayed in both staff and students.  Bad manners and rude behavior are not hard to spot because in general the people doing it WANT to be seen and heard.  It is almost as if people wear their rudeness as a badge of honor.  Can they out-rude everyone else and perhaps be noticed or better still end up on YouTube because as we all know that is the pinnacle of existence anymore.

I find that people who are rude all the time do it for a wide variety of reasons.  To be seen and heard.  To mask their own insecurity.  Because they believe it shows strength over others.  Because they haven't had anyone teach them any better.  Because they mimic what they see most.  Rude people tend to hang out with other rude people and befriend other rude people because those people aren't going to look down on what they say and do and they may even applaud it.  Rude adults usually take great offense at being told they are rude because they never believe that they are.

Years ago, children were raised with manners as part of their daily training.  They were expected to behave politely, kindly and with decency.  If they did not they faced the ire of the parents on the home front and in society they were shunned for it.  Now, as rude behavior is everywhere we look, it becomes "acceptable" or easy to overlook or to just say "well that's how things are."

If we want a more peaceful, a more kind, a more tolerant society then we have to get back to believing that rude behavior is wrong in all circumstances.  It is because we have allowed rude behavior such as name calling, gossip, unkindness, no tolerance, racism and a host of others that we find ourselves in a society where rude behavior is the norm and politeness, kindness, and decency when seen are shocking to our system.

Everyone is so afraid to hold people accountable for their behavior because everybody and everything has to be accepted and not judged and no offense taken. I think if more of us were to say to someone with rude behavior that's ugly, that's mean, that's unkind, that doesn't make you a good person, then perhaps we would start to see less of it.  And if we were to say something when we see goo behavior, perhaps we would see more of that too.