What does it take to be a "decent" human being?
What do we even mean by decent?
One of the things I often hear Mrs. Denmarkguy say is "don't be shitty!" It's a simple statement, and makes a lot more sense than some endless laundry list of the qualities one might have to posess.
In essence, I would like to think that being a decent human being pretty much amounts to don't be shitty.
That said, I am sometimes amazed by how many people in this world of ours are just pretty shitty to each other.
Much of the time, this particular brand of shittiness manifests as pretty much only thinking of themselves and in no way paying any attention to how the things they're doing in life might affect other people. Some might merely say "that's called radical self-reliance," but when your self-reliance pushes somebody else off a cliff I think that qualifies as being fundamentally shitty.
It's a Little Sad...
I find it interesting and even a little bit disturbing that these self-involved tendencies only seem to have gotten worse in the course of the 62 years I have been wandering around on this planet.
When I was a wee lad I was already aware that there were a lot of human beings I didn't like very much because they seemed to treat each other badly... and often with very little reason. As time has gone by it seems like people feel more and more entitled to spend their entire lives at the center of their own universe around which everything else and everyone else revolve.
Whatever happened to basic kindness? Whatever happened to being of service to others?
Sure, you can make the argument that lots of people are still of service but when you dig beneath the surface it seems like they're increasingly only of service when it happens to suit their particular needs, or when it makes them look good in front of other people. Virtue signaling, much?
What actually brought this to mind was my trip to town today where I needed to take some things to the post office, and then I needed to go to the supermarket.
While at the post office, a person had come in needing to send a package and somehow they truly seemed to believe that it was the desk clerk's business to serve them in every possible way.
Imagine, if you will, somebody walking into a post office and putting a stack of dinner plates on the counter and saying I need to send these to my sister in Kansas! Or something very much like that. And then thinking that they had no further part in the business at that point.
Sarah at the post office — who's one of the sweetest people you could wish to meet — was incredibly helpful to this woman, finding out what she needed to wrap the plates safely, and the right size box, and tape and "stuffing" to prevent breakage.
The crowning glory was when it got to the actual sending part and the woman didn't actually have the address, and said "ho, I thought you could just look that up!" At the end of all that it seemed like was behaving like she had received substandard service when in fact the post office clerk went way above and beyond reason to provide excellent service.
Just not a very good way to behave, if you ask me!
Just Don't be Shitty!
Not much later, while I was at the grocery, I noticed how there were several couples in there who were just being unpleasant and mean to each other.
Of course I can't know in advance what sort of day they might have had — we can never know what another is truly going through — but it still seemed kind of pointed and a bit uncalled for.
In the end I left town feeling a little bit sad, and all I can say is "don't be shitty!" The world really will be a better place if people were not shitty to each other...
Thanks for stopping by, and have a great Friday!
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Created at 2023-05-11 23:59 PST
0827/2082