Chrysaalis Contemplations – 1

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Sounds simple? You would be surprised at just how difficult some people find this.

 

I was grocery shopping last Monday afternoon. I work a lot of weekends and Mondays are usually the most relaxed day of the week. The supermarket I visited is located in a lovely, tree lined lane in my neighbourhood. Unfortunately, the lane is rather narrow and the cars have to enter and exit very quickly in order to avoid blocking the road. Weekends, with the small parking lot full, are a challenge, which is another very good reason for a Monday visit. 

 

While browsing through the aisles of the supermarket, I could not help but notice a very elegantly dressed woman who was doing her share of groceries. She would have been in her mid thirties and was dressed in lovely cream linen pants and a dark, casual knit top that set off her tall, slender frame really well. Her hair was knotted up in a casual chignon and she was the picture of relaxed chic. It is always nice to see people who make an effort to look good. I forgot about her after a while as I took my time checking and picking things off the shelves. 

 

I finished doing my groceries, paid and loaded my purchases into the boot of the car. I saw the lady again, with her full trolley, standing near the exit, right in the way of the exiting cars without bothering to move as she spoke on the phone. So the entire queue of cars had to wait for her to finish her conversation and move aside. This however was not the end of the story. Our exit on the road had been blocked by whoever had come to pick her up, presumably the person who had been on the other end of the telephone. He had stopped the car right in front of the gate and sat in the driver’s seat and she hoisted a number of heavy bags out of the trolley into the vehicle. This obviously took a while, resulting in a lot of honking and some raised voices from various car drivers; not only those exiting the supermarket but also the normal traffic in the lane, all of which had come to a stand still. At one point she stopped in her task and yelled out rudely to the general public that they were all blind and therefore could not see her loading bags into the car. 

 

In all of this I wondered why her spouse/friend/brother (assumption made since she finally climbed into the front seat of the car; the man was very well dressed and did not look old enough to be her father) did not bother to drive ahead just a few feet and park on the side of the road; something that would have let the vehicles continue unobstructed. I wondered why he did not have the courtesy or common sense to get off his seat and help her load the bags into the car. I also wondered why she did not make him do these instead of shouting at everyone else. Last but not least I wondered why after emptying the trolley, did she not have the sense to remove it from in front of the gate where it was a traffic stopper!

 

I was about to get out of the car to move the trolley when a bent over old man who was begging on the road side hobbled across and moved the trolley out of the way. He smiled as we drove past, probably used to such incidents every day. And I was left thinking how we fail to display basic good manners and how, quite often, fine trappings hide the the lack of substance inside. 

 

 

Copyright © Taraa Vermaa Senguptaa

13th August 2014

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