Memorial Day (Monday, May 27, 2019) is near.
Yesterday I happened to remember an incident that occurred during Memorial Day weekend a year ago.
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It was Memorial Day weekend. We went to a store to buy grocery. Corns were on sale for 10 ears for $1. As expected, many customers crowded around the stand. Some people simply grabbed 10 or 20 ears of corn and went on with their shopping. Some examined the ears of corn through the husk to make sure they were good. Soon there were only husk and a few ears of corn that nobody wanted left on the stand. People stood around waiting for a worker from the store to refill the stand.
A store worker came. On the cart she pulled were five boxes of corns, two stacks of two with one box on the top. She took a glance at the stand as well as the customers. She did not restock the stand right away. People waited. She kept her eyes on the box on the top. The other boxes had not been opened, but the one on the top was. This box was only half full. People waited quietly for the woman to restock the stand. However, the woman continued to stare at the box. On her face was a look of anger and disgust.
A supervisor of the store came. He tried to open one of the boxes. The woman stopped him. With her hand pointing at the box on the top, she said in an angry low voice, "Look! All the ears of corn were without husk. Some people had actually eaten part of the corn! It must be the leftover on the stand earlier. It is disgusting! How can we allow the customers to do that in our store?" In a quiet voice, the supervisor calmly said, "You take out the wrong box! This box is not near where the boxes of corn are stored. You should not have brought it out at all." The woman's face softened as if she realized she might be at fault. The supervisor proceeded to open the boxes. Meanwhile, he explained, "Our produce comes from different suppliers. We buy produce from local farmers too. It is the store policy to have a team overseeing the produce department. The team makes sure we maintain the high quality and freshness of the produce we sell. They routinely sample fruit or other produce. If the quality is not good enough, we may not buy from those suppliers again. This is the box of corn that the team used for sampling." Quickly, they worked together to fill the stand with fresh ears of corn.
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The woman worker, seeing the corn in the half full box, automatically assumed it was the customers' doing. Believing that her assumption was right or was the only possibility, she formed a harsh judgment toward the customers. As she did, she was filled with disgust. She thought she had the right to feel disgusted, and failed to realize she was the one that suffered (from this emotion).
I appreciated the way the supervisor handled the situation. He did not come by the corn stand by accident. Many employees might not know there were cameras everywhere. I hope the store did not judge the woman because of this incident.
I found this incident meaningful and worth sharing. As human beings, we often blamed others for our chaotic emotions such as 'I am so angry because you make me'. We claimed these strong negative emotions as if, in doing so, we won over those that made us feel this way. We did not really win over a situation or a relationship by acting this way. We could choose how to react or look at a situation with discernment. It helped to take a deep breath, ask ourselves to calm down and look at what happened with a clear mind.
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In life, we react to what we see or hear. In our mind, we draw conclusions believing our assumptions / reasoning must be right. As it is shown in the above case, sometimes what we see, hear or assume can be far from the truth.
Love and Blessings,
Q of D
P.S. This post was published in 2019. Somehow I felt I should publish it again today.
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