We've both been having an uncomfortable and alienating feeling coming from the world lately and have wondered if it is "us". The "they's" in this case are not our friends or family but strangers. They are the people on the streets, the cashiers, folks in shops and such. It's as if people have "checked-out", a sense of dullness and a disconnect about them. I have long since given up on those people in their vehicles who feel anonymous and removed from accountability, courteousness, and safety. But, what happened to the people standing only a foot or two away?
Rhett and I both remember, in the not so distant past, and being people magnets, having more good than bad encounters. Today, I offered a fellow, old enough to have remembered manners, to get in front of me in line, then he waited outside for me to give him directions. Not a Thank You. Nada. The same goes for the homeless man who'd made a bee-line for me, took the change I handed him, looked disgusted with the quantity, then walked off with a grunt. Cashiers don't even seem to appreciate my business and it saddens me that the occasional "Thanks" is the exception rather than the rule.
It is quite similar to the post 9/11 vibe. Whereas you would think that people would be provoked to really contemplate their lives and the world around them and thus be better humans but, instead, there is that disconnect. There doesn't even seem to be that fake Holiday cheer in the air.
I try to always remember that everyone has a story, a life of their own that is private and often painful. I know these times are hard. Call me old fashioned or nostalgic but I really miss those short, intimate, friendly connections, eye contact, a nod to the fact that we are in this thing called life together!
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