My Convenience is Your Problem

Another observation/rant about our society.

This past week, my wife and I were going to the store to do some shopping
for something-it was actually a Wal-Mart store in Skokie, IL (just north
of Chicago)-and I saw something I couldn’t believe.

Now, you have to realize that this is the busiest Wal-Mart in the world.
That isn’t an official claim nor is it likely to be true, but in my
experience, the Skokie Wal-Mart is shoppers’ hell. There are so many cars
that I need to park half a mile away from the front door. There are so
many people that I sometimes need to take a deep breath to avoid
screaming in claustrophobic distress.

But it’s really cheap stuff.

Anyway, we parked our car and were walking the half-mile to the front
door of the store, when I noticed a car in front of me open it’s trunk
all by itself. I thought that was really cool. It was an SUV and the
whole back wall of the car was one big hatch that was slowly opening
upward on its own. I noticed that right behind the car, about 10 yards
away, was a family pushing a cart toward the car.

I thought, Now, that is convenient! By the time they get to the car,
the back door is open and ready to have the stuff loaded right in!

As we got closer, I noticed the woman put their child into his car seat
while the man unloaded the cart. Then, she came back to grab the empty
cart and put it away.

I didn’t think anything of it because it is a habit of mine to actually
take carts back to the cart holders in the parking lot. Sure it’s
inconvenient to push the empty cart all the way back to it’s holding
place, but that’s okay.

However, I couldn’t believe my eyes. The woman pushed the cart about
twenty feet away from her car and left the empty cart parked smack dab in
front of another car! Then, she turned around and returned to her car
leaving some other fellow to be responsible to move not only his own cart
but hers as well.

Suddenly, the thought came to me, “My convenience is your
problem.”

That family was operating on a complete convenience mindset. Their car
had all the extra convenience features one could want including a self
opening back hatch, so why should the lady allow her convenience to be
hampered by anything else?

We live in a world that thinks, “My convenience is your problem,” and I
am no exception.

I want everything to be convenient for me, and if it isn’t, it must be
your fault. If things are convenient for me, and it bothers you, well,
that’s your problem.

What can we do to solve this problem? Have you seen an example of this
kind of thinking? Have you seen it in yourself? What have you done about
it?