Maybe I’m just listening for it, but lately there seems to be an overabundance of “not nice” out there in the world.

I was at Sonic (a drive-in/carhop style restaurant for those unfortunates who don’t have access to the best crushed ice ever!) last night and a guy was shouting into the intercom the most complicated burger order ever heard.  It’s a burger!  How complicated does it need to be?  If you need five hamburgers and every single one of them is weird and specialized maybe you should just eat at home?

What you shouldn’t do is yell at the person who is trying to take your order over an intercom at a restaurant that is on a busy highway during rush hour.  Maybe a little patience is in order for your order.

Yea, there are some people that are truly not doing a competent job and I understand the frustration when you are having to deal with them, but is it that hard to be kind?  Maybe they are having a horrible day…maybe they are just idiots…I don’t know, but neither does the jerk ordering the burgers.

In any case, getting angry and sharing the anger with everyone within earshot didn’t help the situation at all.

What is our obsession with being right?  With carrying on a discussion/arguement until we win?  Some things are worth standing your ground for.  Most things aren’t.

I’m not talking about being a doormat and letting people walk all over you, but about just being nice…kind…thoughtful.  Realizing that you aren’t the only person on the planet – that the world doesn’t revolve around you.

I was goofing around in a store a while back – bantering with my sister.  We weren’t holding up the line or bothering anyone.  A guy shouted across the parking lot to me as we were loading up our groceries…”Why don’t you try acting your age instead of your I.Q.?”  Really?

I carried around that hurt for quite a while.  I know I should have just shrugged it off and called the guy a jerk – or explained that my I.Q. has been tested quite high, for all the good it’s done me.   Instead I suppressed tears and questioned my behavior.  That’s my reaction to hurtful and unthoughtfull words and I know that it’s my problem to deal with.  But, perhaps, I’m not unique in that thought process.

I know that I’ve been working hard at being kinder to people all around me:  checkers at the grocery store, waitresses, even smiles at people I walk by.   If constructive criticism is necessary, I’ve been working on throwing in a positive comment as well. What might the world be like if we all just stopped and realized that we are all just people trying to live our lives –  dealing with problems and fighting battles that nobody else knows about.

What if we just all started saying “Hi”, “Good Job!”, “Thank You” and “Can I help you with that?”…

That’s it…sermon over for the day.

And I really do hope that today, someone says something nice to you – or doesn’t say anything at all.