On Grocery Store Incidents

A grocery store is a wonderful place to witness a wide range of human behavior. Maybe that is a reason I used the marketplace in past posts. My recent trips brought these situations to my attention.

I cannot believe the idea came to me too late. A lady, who was buying a regular size bag of potato chips, was in front of me in the self-checkout aisle. I got the impression that she just put some money on a gift card, which had made its way through the cybermaze. The clerk got involved and directed the lady to the service counter. Then it hit me – I should have purchased the chips for her.

Some things make me feel guilty. For instance, one time I went back to the bank after discovering the clerk gave me 12 cents too much. Recently, I couldn’t pass on the calling from the Cadbury Egg display. Once I got to the car, I noticed I did not run egg through the scanner because it was still in the cart – not a bag. Heck yes I ate it, but several days later when I returned to the store, I paid for the egg with one from the display, and then returned the egg to the display

On the way out of the store, someone left a cart in the middle of a parking space, which was a space-and-a-half from the cart corral. To top it off, it was in the middle of a handicap parking spot. I pushed the cart into the stall, but I admit mumbling unkind thoughts. Later I wondered if the guilty party was physically capable of pushing the cart to its rightful spot. I will never know, and will not venture to guess – but I do wonder.

Past Grocery Store Posts

• Experience
• Searching for Popcorn

Read Full Post »

On Freeing a Burden

With Christians all over the world in the midst of Holy Week that leads up to the pinnacle of the Christian calendar and the foundation for the Christian faith, this post gives you something to ponder.

People activate a variety of feelings within us. Although the feelings can be positive or negative, people can make us angry, bitter, instill anguish, feel rejected or unloved, scared or stressful.

The Christian God is one of love, grace, acceptance, peace, and forgiveness; however, we live in a world in which we encounter circumstances and people that push our button of negative emotions.

While God gives us his unconditional love and grace to all, we allow the actions of others to act as a heavy collar of burden to drag us down in daily life.

While God is the ultimate forgiver of the sins we commit during our earthy existence, our pride (much of the time) blocks us from doing what God would do – and that is to forgive.

From his book Christianity and Process Thought: Spirituality for a Changing World, Dr. Joseph Bracken (retired professor of theology, Xavier University), writes this enlightening words.

Especially in his healing ministry, Jesus touched the minds and hearts of those around him. He cured their physical diseases, but above all, he offered them forgiveness of their sins. Thereby, he assured them that he cared for them as the unique individuals that they really were. He restored to them the humanity that they had somehow lost in the sordid scramble for the good things of the world. All that he asked in return was that they be as humane to one another as he had been to them, that they extend to one another the same practical forgiveness of sins as he had offered to them.

So while we carry the yoke of pent-up anger, bitterness, resentment, rejection, hurt, fear, stress, and other related emotions caused by others, we must remember that the beneficiary may not comprehend or appreciate your act, it is your forgiveness to others that will lead you to a new freedom in life that is without the yoke of burden. Yes, another version of a Judaism Passover theme of “triumph over adversity.”

Happy Easter to we Christians…. and yes, Happy Pesach to those in Judaism.

Read Full Post »

On Christians, Jews, Vulcans, and Valentine

Although not published on this day, I happen to be writing this post on Yom Kippur – the Jewish Day of Atonement. I’m not Jewish, but I do believe that not only do different religions have some things in common, but “other than your own” religions provide principles that are important in helping a person live a spiritual life.

On Yom Kippur Jews use prayer to be retrospective on their own life, and then seek forgiveness for their wrong doings against God. By looking within at they have been and how they can be better, Jews use three steps of repentance: recognize, acknowledge, and resolve.

We live in age of town hall cranks, self-serving politicians, reality-show television, smack talk, obnoxious talk-show hosts and their listeners who help proclaim the spews of evil and ridicule of others to dominate our society of greed and self-promotion and interest. Therefore it seems that all of us could use self-reflection to develop civility, ethics, compassion, and an outlook of pulling others through the difficulties of life.

I’m not a Trekkie, but I’ve seen my share of Star Trek episodes and movies. The scene that sticks in my mind is the initial Vulcan assessment of Earth humans because they were appalled at our behaviors, cultural divides, use of fighting, and many other humanisms, which seemed uncivilized and barbaric to them.

Although some think of Vulcans as emotionless, I believe that it is more accurate to say that they work to suppress their emotions through self-control in order to use reason and logic in their problem solving and decision making. I often wonder if Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry thought of Vulcans as what humans could be.

And then there’s Philippians 2:1-4 from Christianity:

If then there is any encouragement in Christ, any consolation from love, any sharing in the Spirit, any compassion and sympathy, make my joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others.

I can’t forget Tim Valentine whose blog I often read. Tim often writes about race because he truly believes that race should be irrelevant in human encounters. Although Tim realizes that society has made positive strides, to him advances are too slow as he wants people to treat each with civility and respect–regardless of race, religion, political labels, nationality, heritage, or whatever segments society uses to divide people.

So there it is, a religion embracing self-reflection for living a better life through care and compassion, another religion expressing love and compassion over selfishness, a fictional society stressing logic and reason to seeking meaningful solutions, and one person trying to not only practice what he preaches, but also promote for the good of all through respect for all. Wouldn’t the world be a better place if these principles were commonly practiced?

Read Full Post »