Time for a Social Commentary

We need to stop making places that make people feel special and important because humans are not responsible beings and they eventually start believing that they deserve it.

I went grocery shopping with my mom today to the most ridiculous store I have ever been to in my life. Grocery stores: in order to stand out and win more customers...you don't need to pull out a red carpet and exploit your employees...just label your aisles and be fully stocked...give me a savings card and I'm happy.

This store has:
people lined up every other aisle asking you if you need help with anything.
Once you are ready to check out, there is someone standing by the registers who asks you "are you ready to check out?" and wheels your cart to the next available register at which point another person takes over and takes out your groceries from your cart unto the small belt. Once there someone organized your groceries into bags. They then ask you if you need help on the way to your car while there is someone waiting on cue on the chance you say yes because they then take your cart, wait for you to drive your car to the store entrance and they place your groceries in your car.

Who's vision was this?????
Who ever decided that people needed this???

The result of this ridiculous experiment:
People behave like they ACTUALLY DESERVE IT. It was an absolutely disgusting show of arrogance and brute ignorance.
At some level, we all do it. It might even be possible to claim that it is human nature to want to feel superior to others. If we feel more powerful, then we are somehow more intelligent and more important than anybody else. This behavior, however, really only stems from our own insecurities and fear of inadequacy.

With that... if you spend your time going to stores and putting other people down to feel the thrill of power and prove that you are indeed 'better' therefore every employee at the Grocery Store should bow down at your feet.... you may need to re-examine your life, your goals and your motivations.

Just for giggles, allow me to share an example:

- As I was looking for my delicious marinated artichokes, there was a woman looking for some kind of canned vegetable. She found it but it was canned in two different styles. (Not that there was a big difference between the two...one was cultivated, one was not.) She was absolutely baffled by this and approached one of the sales clerk to ask him what the difference was.
Now...I am not an expert at grocery store jobs but I'm pretty sure that they do not sit these people down and have them memorize the difference between every type of product they sell in the store.
He, ooobviouslyyyy did not know the answer to which she replied..ughh, is Bill here??
I was so frustrated by this that I decided to move on to the baked goods aisle only to find this woman 5 minutes later by the registers, still trying to figure out the difference between the two. She actually made the manager bring out a book explaining the components of each product they sell and they had Bill go through it to see if he could figure out the difference between cultivated and non-cultivated.
First...it's canned food, it can't taste that much different.
Second... she probably carries a blackberry with her...google it.

Not long ago I read a book called The Art of Happiness. It is written by the Dalai Lama and Dr. Howard C. Cutler. One of the things that stroke me the most when reading this book, is the Dalai Lama's ability to be completely rational about human emotions and needs. Dr Cutler asks him at one point how he is able to relate to the humblest of people as well as to incredibly wealthy individuals and still make a deep connection with each of them.
The Dalai Lama replied that we are all humans. Strip us all of everything, money, race, class, even color and we are all human beings. When he greets others, he does not think of it as a meeting between Dalai Lama and rich investor...he sees it as human being meeting human being. He has the ability to look beyond the appearances and relate to the person within. I found this to be incredibly humbling and inspiring. He clearly operates at a different level but He explains that only when we are able to interact with each other in this manner do we open paths of communication and only then can we truly relate to each other in the way we were intended to do.

If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion." - Dalai Lama