What To Carry

Humanity. Compassion. Patience. Dignity.

Compassion when you see that turtle trying to cross the road. Instead of hoping he makes it, be the reason he does. Thirty seconds of your day could mean years of life to one of nature’s creatures. A selfless act that could bring joy to your day and a lifetime of adventure for another living being.

Patience for those in situations you’re unaware of. You’ve driven distracted. You’ve not been paying attention when the light turned green. The person in front of you may have left on time or may in fact not have anywhere specific to go. The public should not be held accountable for your failures.

You have no idea what the person in front of you is going through. Instead of creating a problem where none existed before, take a breath and ask yourself if whatever happens after you publicly display your impatience worth the reaction which follows?

Dignity. “They get paid to do that”. Do you really think someone looks forward to cleaning up your mess for the little bit of money they’re being paid? They get up every day with the excitement of sanitizing bathrooms and organizing the mess of other people just so they can prevent living under a bridge?

A person with a low paying job isn’t living their best life -why that happens to be is none of our business. We’ve all been in bad situations before. You never know when they are one shit-show away from pulling the trigger… either on themselves or in mass.

Emotions are contagious. Your bad moment can have a butterfly effect through time and space.

Let’s say you’re fed up at the DMV for any number of reasons. You unleash your frustration on the easiest target available -the employee on the other side who neither made the rules, nor permitted to make exceptions.

You’ve just added to their shitty day. Do you really think you’re the only one who did so?

They clock out and go home in a terrible mood. As humans do, we take it out on our significant other.

What if that significant other just happens to be your server later that night when you go out to have a nice meal? Their service lacks because they’re miserable at home and it disrupts their ability to focus on their job at 100%.

You receive poor service and you either complain or refuse to provide a decent tip.

Or what if that DMV’s spouse is the surgeon who is called in to operate on you or a loved one -but in the back of their mind, their troubles at home make it difficult to concentrate? Doctors are humans, contrary to many of their beliefs.

The ripples of negative emotions continue through time. Your poor behavior may be an instant for you, but it can and will spread just as a virus does. It can also come right back to you.