Yesterday I had the rare opportunity to escape to Hobby Lobby in ... wait for it ... DAYLIGHT. Husband is on an early schedule, so I made the most of it and roamed the aisles in peace. But that's not what this post is about.
There's a double-door setup at Hobby Lobby. I walked in and noticed a woman struggling with her cart to get through the first set of doors, so I quickly walked back to the other door and held it open for her. It took about two minutes. She thanked me profusely - seriously, it was like I had paid her bills for a month. She told me that she had just had back surgery and usually had to ask people for help, and she just couldn't believe that I had gone out of my way to be helpful and that I had done my good deed for the day.
As I've mentioned before, we're very polite in the Midwest/Great Lakes area.* Tis not the same around here. It's something I've repeatedly noticed throughout my sentence here.
I should also say that my college (which we'll refer to as Blue U) has serious OCD when it came to opening doors for people. We would wait MINUTES to open the door for people behind us. We would rush to get to the door first to open it for another person. I'm not kidding, no student at Blue U just let a door slam. This behavior was the standard.
Moving on ...
Anyway, since retiring my other blog, I've received emails from multiple people that said the missed my writing and that they love getting such an honest glimpse into motherhood (and stay-at-home motherhood at that) and that ... wait for it ... I make them want children! Wha ha ha ha. Such HUGE compliments. Seriously, you guys, you have NO idea how much that means to me. It means that my writing must be coherent (and possibly entertaining) and that I must make this mom gig not seem ::so:: awful (despite my discussion of poops and snots and noise). Those are all big things to me - my writing, my honesty, my kids.
So, here's what I'm getting at, making a small gesture can make someone's day. Whether it's opening a door or jotting a note, it's well worth doing.
*And now my politeness is wondering why I didn't follow the poor woman to her car and help her unload the cart and then bring the cart back up to the building. Gah!
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I can't stop laughing. You're SPOT ON about Midwest politeness, and dear God, the Blue U bit...can you believe I'd forgotten about that? When you're walking even with someone, or notice that you're coming from the North, they're coming from the South, and you're going to get to the door at the same time...the quickstep at the end so you get there first and can hold it open for them? And it wasn't even something that required a verbal thank you (though, polite MidWesterners that we are, we usually did it anyhow), just a smile and a nod of the head. I do that now, and people just think I'm crazy. Why on earth would I go out of my way to hold a door open? I miss the Midwest!
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