They're telling us that 78% of employed Americans work in "the service industries" these days. And that number is rising. So most of us are helping others for a living. And that is why I think it's worth taking a look at how we deal with The Help that We Are.
For so many years, as I was off at work from dawn to dusk, my spouse, who's always worked from home, has been the one to answer the door. Our friendly green front porch with its deep orange-colored front door is also decked out with a No Solicitors sign right above the doorbell. As door-to-door selling and canvassing has all but disappeared what with us all out there serving one another, the greater accomplishment is to have an unlisted phone number and a charter place on the Do Not Call list.
But still, sometimes one needs to call customer service. Or get a plumber out to the house. Or be helped by a clerk in the store. And sometimes, when we have our eyes open to the world around us, we see others who could use a helping hand and we can offer ours.
In this interdependent web we call our society, there couldn't be a more obvious arena in which to practice the golden rule than in how we give and receive help from one another. How can it be, then, that we so often ignore opportunities for enriching our interactions? With our need for speed, our abundance of shiny devices, our peppy autos surrounding us in metal and glass, I suppose it isn't surprising that we're getting rusty at person-to-person contact. But does such efficiency actually serve to make your life happier?
The basis of human interaction is contact. Sensing when another is ready to help or be helped. Picking up his or her vibe, rhythm, sense of space, we can begin our interaction with careful listening and observation. It only takes a moment, and the other person can feel whether she or he is being truly seen as a person or exists simply as their function in your eyes.
Such a simple sign of respect for another, in person or on the phone, can make a world of difference going forward. Have all the wizardly, timesaving devices in your life really conspired to teach you to become impatient with how slow humans are in giving you what you think you need right now? Will tailgating the older woman in the car in front of you really persuade her to rev up and hit her gas pedal? And will bumping the tip up to 19% really make up for the rudeness your impatience caused through all you interactions with the server?
Dear Reader, I've been venting again. Please don't take my above rhetorical devices personally. It's just that I refuse to believe that all the people in a raging hurry really have lots of other very important people awaiting them, and are therefore justified in treating us normal folks like their serfs. It's not just Power that blinds, it's even more the illusion of power that eggs us on to press forward, whatever the cost.
We all need one another. None of us actually controls other people, no matter how much we may so desire. Building more glimmering high-rises to house more high rollers while our roads and bridges are falling apart? Say what? Letting our public education languish while donating billions to get names engraved into new buildings at places already full of new buildings?
We haven't forgotten how seeing and being seen, holding another's hand, opening a door or helping someone cross a street, surely we haven't forgotten how much more these things mean to all of us than gross adjusted income and loopholes and LED screens..... have we?
1 Comment
Bobolink
7/28/2014 09:41:04 pm
Normal?
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