Selflessness … A Fastlane Path?
I bought a stranger lunch today, and two selfish, inconsiderate strangers got nothing.
One was a victim, the other two, opportunists.
Here is how it went down:
I don’t do burgers often, but today, I needed one. After a trip to the oral surgeon and being told that my dental implant will need to be redone for the 3rd time, making this one tooth a 4 year project, I felt compelled to indulge in junk food.
I arrived at the In-And-Out Burger drive-thru and decided the best way to combat the pain of a new, year-long dental ordeal was to do a good deed. I told myself that I would buy lunch for the next 2 cars in line behind me. I’ve done this several times over the years as it’s always fun to play Santa Claus in the most unconventional of places. Heck, I was due for some philanthropic spending anyway — my attendance at church has taken a beating since the NFL season started, if ya know what I mean.
Now, this is where things get complicated. The entrance of the drive-thru line is a T-Intersection.
Eventually, an older women pulled in behind me on one arm of the T and so I had car #1 spotted for my targeted good deed, unbeknown to her. I waited for car #2.
After 60 seconds, another car with two, 20-something girls pull into the other arm of the T and crowd my rear. Good, I thought, there is car #2 — so I have my good deed targets: We have an older woman, probably mid 50′s, and two young girls – the 3 of them will get a nice surprise today, a free lunch, and maybe I can make their day, if not, their hour.
So as the drive-thru line started to move forward I realized an unfolding injustice….
The two young girls started to crowd my bumper, despite the other woman who was clearly there first.
Obviously, these two girls had no intention on acknowledging the other woman, already in line at the opposite end of the T, waiting. As I moved my Toyota forward thru the line, the 2 girls tailgate me within inches, promptly and swiftly cutting-off the older woman.
The older woman let off a cowering honk of her horn just to say “Hey, I was sitting here first!”
The two girls? As I spied my rear view mirror, their response was to laugh and giggle.
Now of course, the occupants of these 2 cars weren’t aware that I was buying them lunch, had they, I wonder, would they have acted differently?
The attitude of the two girls was clear: “We are getting ours and we don’t care who we have to mow down to get it.” Really? Can I deduce this? All from this seemingly innocuous event?
Call it immaturity, selfishness, inconsideration — all are poison pills to a Fastlane.
I don’t know how the older lady felt after being disrespected and laughed at, but I was empowered by the hope that my act would erase whatever she might have been feeling, and perhaps, recast the shadow of this subtle act, with a small light of restoration.
As I pulled up to the cashier, I told him I was also paying for the woman 2 cars behind.
I also told the cashier to inform the 2 girls that were immediately behind me that they lost their free lunch when they decided it was funny to cut off the older woman and laugh about it.
I don’t know if the cashier told them. I don’t know if the older lady appreciated my good gesture. I don’t know and I never will.
I do know, however, that karmic justice is alive and well in the Fastlane.
I grabbed my food and drove home.
MJ
And Stop The Prostitution of Monday Through Friday!
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