The Pleasures and Disadvantages of Being a "Kidult": My Blog of Random Thoughts: Things that I Believe is Wrong with Society These Days

What I've been noticing a lot lately, and I don't know if it's just my town that I live in or what, but, I rarely ever see anyone be polite or kind to anyone. I don't see people help each other out as much, or even give to the less fortunate...

It's almost as if everybody gave up on each other, or are just plain ignorant or rude.

People that I see around me only seem like they care about themselves, and they will only do things for their own personal gain.

I'll give you some examples:

I'll hold the door for someone, maybe they're handicapped and need help, or a mother pushing a stroller can't grab the door, or just simply doing a nice gesture...

I get ignored, with no thank you or any acknowledgement of my existence and they act like you were supposed to hold the door for them. As if they were a king or something...

A car is stalled out on the side of the road, and the owner is stuck, desperately trying to get it started back up so he can get out of the cold and go home.

Everyone just keeps driving past, not even slowing down enough to ask if he needs assistance or a jump even. They just keep going, acting like they never saw it.

Kids/Teenagers are posting more and more videos on the internet/social networking sites of fights that broke out in school. They show horrible images of a little kid getting hurt by a big kid, or two girls degrading each other by ripping each other's clothes off during the fight...

If kids had any decency, they wouldn't post up things like that and promote violence. Yeah, kids will be kids, but how come not ONE of them stands up and says, "Hey guys, this kid didn't even do anything to us. Why are we even bothering him? This is sad."

Like, they don't feel the least bit of sadness seeing someone innocent and small get hurt. :(

Those are just a few examples, but I could go on for ages. I can't even count how many times that I went to the grocery store to shop and people will just push me out of the way (that thing people do, like brush up against you with their elbow and shove you a little, but trying not to make it look on purpose) just to get down the food aisle. What ever happened to "excuse me"?

I even get those kind of people who would walk right in front of me and stand there while I was already there looking at something on the shelf at the store. They had no concern of my presence.

Is all of this rudeness and lack of politeness because some asshole did it to the next guy, which made the next guy turn into an asshole, so he did the same to the next guy, and so this big asshole cycle started, and that's why it seems like everyone is an asshole?

So here's what I pledged to do lately. This was bothering me too long, maybe let's try to make a difference. I refuse to be ignorant and ignore others like they don't matter.

As a society, we are ALL human beings, trying to find our own way in life trying to survive. We should be there for each other, lend a hand when it's needed, help each other... Because if you needed help, you would appreciate it if someone lent you a hand, right?

1) Compliment others often. A simple compliment, doesn't take much time at all, can turn someone's day around in a heartbeat. To make others feel good, would make you feel good, right? It should!

2) Help that guy stuck on the side of the road! Got jumper cables? Help him out! Good karma will return to you! I always carry a set in my vehicle just in case anyone needs it, including myself.

3) Someone standing at the checkout in front of you is short on change for his order. Lend him a buck or two! Of course, I don't expect you to pay his order for him, but if he's short $1.55, hell, I'd scrape some up for him. I did that once for a guy who was buying a gallon of milk and some bread and he came up short. He was desperately digging in his pockets for change. I paid his entire order for him (not much, honestly) and he could not stop thanking and blessing me! Poor guy must've been having a hard time. :(

4) If you don't know a person's name yet, refer to them as "ma'am" or "sir". It's just more respectful that way. Way better than "hey", "dude" and "hey, you". I sadly, never hear "ma'am" and "sir" being used anymore.

5) Don't ever stiff the delivery driver out of a tip (unless your service was horrible, but also remember that he just delivers the orders, he doesn't necessarily make them). I used to work at a pizza shop, and our drivers would literally speed to your house to make sure you got your food on time. We have a $1.50 delivery charge, and guess what? Our drivers only get the 50 cents, while the company (P.H.- there's the initials of the company's name, I don't know if I'm allowed to say it fully, but I bet you can figure it out) keeps the dollar. Barely any gas reimbursement at all.

But anyway, some of those drivers even depend on those tips to put food on the table when they get home because they live paycheck to paycheck. :( I've seen it. I always give a tip, and then extra sometimes and tell them to give that to the cooks, to show them appreciation too!

6) Say hello with a friendly (not creepy...) smile to people who pass you by. I would say hello to a passerby on the sidewalk walking and they just stick their nose in the air and keep walking, ignoring my gesture. WTF :(

7) Never make fun of someone just because of their looks. It's just ignorant. My boy pointed at a bigger lady in a waiting room at my doctors office this morning, and whispered to me, "Mommy, she's fat!!". I literally took him in the bathroom, smacked his mouth for his ignorance and gave him a lecture.

None of these examples even take much effort at all! That's why I don't understand why others can't just be nice and treat each other fairly and with kindness.

Maybe someone is having a horrible day. A "bad-luck" sort of day. But if you give them a simple friendly compliment, or even a friendly conversation, it would most likely make a huge difference on how that person's outlook of the day is then! And seriously, it doesn't take that much!

Also, if someone helps you, return the favor. Or pass on the good karma and help someone else out, create that "good karma cycle" instead of the "asshole cycle". ;)

And this leads me to one more thing...

People on government assistance (welfare). This is a touchy subject to most people, because of the amount of debate! But I'm not going there...

I hear a lot of complaining about these people. I know, for a fact, that there are people out there who just abuse the help for a free-ride. That's basically stealing from society! These people are assholes.

I hate the people who are perfectly able to work, but just refuse to and sit on their butts all day and collect. Also the ones who commit fraud to get even more benefits illegally. That's not contributing to society! It is unfair to the ones who work hard for everything they own and it's basically stealing from their pockets!

But what I think people don't see are the people who do need the assistance. The ones who do have jobs, but just don't make enough to survive. Face it, a 40 hour per week job at minimum wage still cannot put enough food on the table, definitely if they have kids and after rent and utilities and such are paid for. Times are tough, and some people need the extra hand. And there are people out there who are working on college for a higher education to get a nice job, but in the meantime, need the help temporarily. And mostly all of those kinds of people are embarrassed of having/needing the assistance.

It's the ones that don't try to get off of the assistance programs that bothers me.

But, I put this in this post, just because I believe that before you criticize all, there are some that are trying their best. If you got fired from your job out of nowhere, you never know if you would temporarily need the help, right? You just might if your luck runs out. Even if you had a savings as back up, what if you don't find a solution by the time it runs out? :(

But anyway, what I am meaning is, people also need to stop criticizing others, especially if they don't know them. We do have a lot of judgmental people in our society.

Back to what I was getting at...

If you see someone in need, help them out. People are struggling everyday.

Do something generous.

Acknowledge others' generosity, also!

Also, Thanksgiving and Christmas are just around the corner! Be thankful for what you have, as others are out there struggling to get what you have. Be thankful for life, your home, your loved ones, your meals, everything and every little thing!