The other day I was in Cutlers, a small sandwich shop here in Utah (they’ve got an amazing turkey and avocado sandwich, by the way, and crazy-good sugar cookies).
It was early evening and they were about to close. I walked in and placed an order for a dozen sugar cookies (no, not all for me… although I could have eaten them all).
The gentleman at the counter took my order and my cash, gave me my change, and declared with an I’m-bored-out-of-my-mind voice “You’re number 288”.
“No, I’m Rusty” I thought. But then he handed me a little sheet of paper on which was scrawled the number 288, as if he’d read my mind and wanted to prove me wrong.
I looked around me. There was one other person in the shop, and she’d already gotten her order.
I laughed out loud, which earned me a quizzical expression from my little helper, and to which I replied “Never mind… thank you.”
Clearly, he didn’t understand the importance of being personal.
But it made me wonder at my own interactions with people, how often I must take on that same robotic approach. How often do I forget that the person I’m talking to is a person? That they’ve got a life, and right now it might not be going so well.
We all have areas in our lives that, due to repetition, cause us to be a bit too calloused in our interactions with people.
How would you feel if you drove up to the McDonalds window and the gal (instead of just reaching out for your money), looked at you in the eye, smiled, and said “Nice to see you, thanks for coming to McDonalds”, or “have a great evening, and enjoy your meal.”
Interacting with people can (and should) be one of the most regularly enriching aspects of our lives. Sometimes they’ve got a bit of spare energy, or humor, or wisdom that you can glean from. Sometimes it’s the other way around. But whatever it is, as you become more aware of the person to whom you’re talking, you’ll find that good things happen.
If we all tried to be just a bit more personal in our dealings with others, we’d find the world would be a better place.
Rusty
P.S. Email, as well as other mediums of digital communications tends to exacerbate this problem even more. If your interactions with others are primarily digital, you’ll need to be extra vigilant, because you lack those visual cues that would otherwise guide your interaction.
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
http://saquel25.blogspot.com/2009/05/in-checkout-at-walmart.html
Rusty,
Check out the above link. It is a blog of a friend of mine. She posted an entry just the other day with the same message you are sharing. Great message. Thanks.
Great reminder, Rusty! I think the way we interact with those around us on the days when everything goes wrong, shows what we’re made of. Especially in our families, who are most dear to us.
BTW, welcome back! We’ve missed you!
Great post
Thanks for your comment on my blog. I love the blogging community. It’s always good to find someone out there willing to talk openly about their beliefs in a positive way as you are doing. I look forward to exploring more of what you have on here.
hey this is a very interesting article!
Hi Rusty! glad to have your blog back online – I know its been back for a while – I’ve been too busy for blog surfing.
I love this post. I think it is very appropriate considering the current trend in our culture to replace “things as they really are” (Jacob 4:13) for virtual reality! Elder Bednar recent gave an amazing speech to students in the Church Education System. He encouraged us to engage in personal interactions and warned of the increasing trend of cyber worlds where people can replace their current reality with a virtual one.
I encourage anyone to read his Apostolic Warning of Satan’s modern-day plan to diminish the importance of our tangible bodies. His speech can be found at this link:
http://www.lds.org/library/display/0,4945,538-1-4830-1,00.html
His insight, direction, and voice of warning are a perfect example of the need for modern day prophets!
Rusty,
Thank you so much for this. Thank you for making a point whether that person understood it or not. I guess you could say I’ve been struggling and having a hard time with this (such a fast & testimony phrase) and so often I wonder about this. Almost every time I go to a restaurant or even walking around my high school, I just wonder how many things I probably have in common with the man sitting the table over or how I feel when someone I’ve never seen before looks me in the eyes and smiles at me. It’s strange how introverted a seemingly “normal” person is. And although I’m not nearly as eloquent and knowledgable as yourself and some of your readers, this is definitley a topic any human can understand.
Thank you!