Today I frequented what has become one of my favorite topics about which to write: The grocery store. The grocery store (including the parking lot), with its employees and its customers, is a microcosm of the world around the store, wherever it is located. Rural, urban, inner city, suburban.....life in the store reflects life outside the store.
I have favorite check-out clerks and baggers and, as I've stated before, I will stand in a certain line behind many customers, just to have my groceries properly handled. Yes, I admit to being very fussy about how my tomatoes, bananas, avacados, white-corn Tostados, apples, grapes, bread, and bags (not boxes) of cat litter are handled. This morning, when my cart came up next to have my food items scanned, the check-out clerk, smiled wanly when I greeted her and said, "Good morning. I'm trying to keep a smile on my face." I responded that I understood that "we-the-public" could be demanding and ill-tempered. She simply said, "Yes".
Here was a woman whose eyes told one story but the smile on her face told another. When she looked me in the eyes, I could see the stress in hers, and I felt for her. What thoughts and feelings laid beneath her smile and greeting?
With every trip I make to the store, I give myself a challenge to smile at as many individuals who will look me in the eye and return a smile. Every shopping day is unique, with different results from each visit to the store. Today, I'd say about fifty percent returned my smile and thusly looking me in the eye. It is amazing to me the number of people who are unable to look another in the eye. I realize that some cultures discourage or disallow certain segments of their societies to look other segments in the eye and I also realize that some demographics of our society are not comfortable looking the opposite sex in the eye. This attitude of deference is as old as the proverbial hills. Yet, what lies beneath, in terms of thoughts and feelings, can only be surmised and guessed at.
Some of us are more highly skilled than others at keeping the mask perfected at all times. The weary lines around the check-out clerk's eyes told me that maintaining her smile was taking its toll. Some of us smile a lot, others laugh a lot......everyone's "mask" manifests itself differently, yet the end result is the same.
What lies beneath is not always what matches the surface.
Ancora imparo
