An old man sat outside the walls of a great city.
When travelers approached, they would ask the
old man, "What kind of people live in this
city?" And the old man would answer, "What
kind of people live in the place where you came from?"
If the travelers answered, "Only bad people live
in the place where we came from," the old man
would reply, "Continue on; you will find only bad
people here." But if the travelers answered,
"Good people live in the place where we came from,"
then the old man would say, "Enter,
for here, too, you will find only good people."
- Yiddish Folk Tale
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TALES FROM THE FOOD STORES + FUN PHYSICS EXPERIMENT + WHAT I'VE BEEN WORKING ON
So much of what you see in this world comes from the inner view you already had.
I've been out shopping every day for the last three days, not because I'm in a panic about
getting stuff, but because I usually food shop on the weekends at different places and I thought I'd do one per day
since the lines might be long.
In every case, even when lines were long, everyone was calm and nice. I struck up
conversations with the people around me. It was all very positive, with one exception...
After school ended on Thursday, I stopped by Giant to pick up a few things for my
mother-in-law. The lines were very very long, but I decided to wait it out. As I said, everyone was nice, except for one guy.
He butted in line ahead of me.
I debated whether to say something to him; I didn't want to start an incident, but I felt
I had to speak up for everyone who had patiently waited. So I said "Sir, the line starts back there."
He replied: "I don't give two @#$!s about the line. I have a bus to catch. Are you going to give
me a ride home if I miss it??" I replied that I would be happy give him a ride. He ignored me.
I let it go, and no one else said anything. I think it's best not to lower yourself to the level of
those people and get down in the mud with them and slug it out. Keep it positive and let it go.
But most importantly, don't let it color your view of everyone else. That was one guy, out of easily hundreds
in the stores I've seen. If you are looking for bad things, you will see them. On the other hand, if you look for positive things
then you will see them instead. In a future post, we'll talk about something called confirmation bias.
