Appreciation is a lost art form. Don’t try and change my mind either. In fact, I’m convinced that showing appreciation (in the general sense) is nearly mythological and is something you only read about in fairy tales. Even in the Bible belt, I remain far more likely to see someone waving a nine millimeter than thank you from their car windows.
I hate leaving my house, because it always ends the same way. I depart full of optimism for humanity; I leave full of youthful naivety, sincerely believing that somehow, somewhere people will refrain from behaving like complete asshats either on the road or at the market –I wouldn’t dare hope for both. And each time I return from my excursions, I come home disenchanted and with the unshakable urge to punch random strangers in the face.
Except for last Friday.
After I collected the kids from the dentist and their half-day of school and midterms, I had to go to Toys R Us to pick up my daughter’s bike from the in-store assembly service. Much to my chagrin, when I arrived, the bike wasn’t ready. However, instead of pitching a fit because the bike that was supposed to be ready on Tuesday wasn’t ready on Friday afternoon, I shrugged it off and kept a cool head. The manager apologized, promised me that it would be fixed in 30 minutes and refunded my $10.83 assembly charge. I let her know I appreciated her because she didn’t HAVE to do that. When I did this, the poor woman looked like I had just hit her upside the head with a ice-covered, frozen solid salmon. I guess they don’t get many customers like me. As I waited for the assembly, I went next door to run another errand.
As I meandered up and down a few isles in my local Office Depot, I happened upon a lady who offered me a free coupon. She wasn’t an employee, she wasn’t a promoter, she was a fellow shopper. She just happened to have an extra, and she was more than delighted to share with me, she said, “Because I looked like a nice person.” Her coupon saved me 20 percent off my entire purchase. (Thank you mysterious stranger). She expected nothing in return when she handed her savings to me. I let her know I appreciated her. And she, just like the Toys R Us manager, looked at me as if I had conked her upside her head with a frozen fish.
Call my experience what you will. Call it karma, call it God, call it the universe, but whatever you call it, I call it the reward for the rediscovery of the lost art of appreciation. If it’s powerful enough to change my sour attitude, I can only surmise that it is damn well powerful enough to change the entire world. If we (each one of us) took just one second out of our busy lives to let someone know we appreciate even the smallest of gestures, we might find ourselves creeping ever further from the edge of nuclear war and national financial collapse.
Think about it.
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