A Place To Stand

'There is a certain amount of kindness in this world, just as there is a certain amount of light. We cast a shadow on something wherever we stand, and it is no good moving from place to place to save things; because the shadow always follows. Choose a place where you won't do harm - yes, choose a place where you won't do very much harm and stand in it for all you are worth, facing the sunshine'
A Room with a View - E M Forster

People never fail to amaze me. I wish that I could say that my amazement was a result of something sweet and unexpected, like a hoody giving up his seat on the bus for an elderly lady, or a modified, body-kitted Renault Clio driver stopping to let some kids cross the road, but in this case, it’s nothing quite so benevolent.

Life can be an odd mixture of ups and downs at the best of times, but the way I see it, we’re all trapped on this troublesome little planet together so we might as well do what we can to make things that little bit easier for someone else. Kind of a Pay It Forward idea, only, hopefully, without the rather horrific and totally demoralizing ending. It doesn’t have to take a great deal of effort, because I realize that anything outside the norm sometimes requires disengaging your brain from your butt for a while, but the small little things can make such a huge difference to someone else’s day.

Picture the scene. You’ve had a long day at work. All you want to do is get home, but you have to make a stop at the supermarket first because you have no milk for that cup of coffee when you get in. It’s busy there, just like it always is at about five when everyone else is trying to get home too, but you fight your way through the usual hurdles of Mr I Need An Entire Aisle to Manoeuvre My Trolley, Mrs I Have A Pram And That Entitles Me To Smack You In The Ankles With My Mclaren, Miss I Can’t Decide What Shampoo To Buy and Ms Stop Totally Without Warning And Then Glare At You When You Walk Straight Into Her, all with a patient, forbearing smile engrained on your haggard face as you take all the pains and tribulations that the supermarket deigns to hurl at your long-suffering soul. It’s all worth it, you tell yourself. Just think how good it will feel when you’re sat at home, your feet up, watching a bit of TV, enjoying that nice cup of coffee that you’ve struggled so hard to earn. You keep telling yourself that as you hit the checkouts and find the queue from hell. The sole cashier on duty is Chatty Kathy, who considers it her mission in life to lift everyone’s day by dissecting the contents of their shopping trolley.

I really don’t care, you think to yourself, at least an hour away from being served, patience beginning to flag just a little as you see time ticking away and you realize that it would have been quicker to go to a farm and milk the damn cow yourself.

But wait…what’s this? Another cashier? God be praised, it’s a miracle! Another cashier! You wait patiently while she adjusts her chair, fiddles with her monitor, checks how many carriers she has, then puts them away because she forgot that a customer has to get down on their knees and beg for one of those environmentally cataclysmic pieces of plastic before facing the walk of shame, treated like a social leper for being unable to carry milk, frozen peas, cat food, a bottle of wine and a packet of sugar in the bags under their eyes.

And just when she's ready, just when you move across to the other checkout, here comes Mrs My Emotional Crisis Is Much More Severe Than Yours from the back of the queue, moving as though she’s greased her heels with lard, to start unloading her cartload of pies, sausage rolls, crisps and Diet Coke onto the conveyor belt.

And that’s when murder begins to seem like a viable option. That’s when you begin to understand where D-Fens in the movie 'Falling Down' was coming from.

What is wrong with people? Does no one have any consideration for anyone else anymore?

Do me a favour - the next time you’re at a supermarket at the back of the queue and someone shouts ‘Next’, or the next time you’re tempted to take up a disabled space because you can’t be bothered to walk an extra ten feet, or you decide to drive past the poor guy who’s been stuck at a junction trying to pull out for the last ten minutes, spare a thought for your fellow human beings who may just have had an equally bad, if not worse, day than you.

You never know. Maybe one day, someone will have that same consideration for you.