For instance, it takes me longer to traverse terrain, so when I go somewhere I need to plan for extra time to actually get there. The knee scooter terrifies me. I toppled off it this past winter and broke my tailbone. So I go even slower than some of the 70 year olds I've seen on one.
I've learned to appreciate, really appreciate what permanently handicapped people have to deal with on a regular basis. Every little seam in a sidewalk, a carpet, cement poses a risk for people who rely on walkers and wheelchairs.
But today, I went through what every vehicle owner or recipient of a state issued ID goes through. Waiting in the dreaded line at the state department of motor vehicles (DMV).
I planned on getting there reasonably early and did so by about 9:30am. As I turned down the street and glanced into the DMV parking lot, I knew I was in trouble. I found a spot across the lot and far down the row from the main doors, where a line huddled.
By the time I got the scooter to the entrance, an employee was running crowd control through the open door.
I'm glad she was doing a bit of triage. When she asked what I needed, she politely informed me I was at the wrong location and sent me to another one that handled my county.
I got to the car and drove about three miles to the next DMV. Here I was given a number B124. I took a seat and waited for my number to appear on the video display. Eventually, it showed up on the bottom. Starting at B109 I thought I would have a good long while to wait. Surprisingly the system today was efficient and people waiting to be served were prepared. I think it took my window operator longer to get what I needed than the time it took to input the information I provided into the computer.
While I waited, I did some meditating as I did not come prepared with reading material. For as many people as were there, it was remarkably quiet.
So, today, I got to practice meditation and patience. People do the best that they can. You don't know what someone is going through internally, and we sure don't take a lot of opportunities to walk in another's moccasins.
Case in point. Today a large number of my friends and acquaintances lost a friend and co-worker from the Medicare department. The speculation right now is that there may have been drugs involved. I hope not, but we don't know what is going on in people's lives and minds away from us.
My co-workers have had nothing but praise for the kind of person she was, how good she was with them, how well she learned from her quality advocates. But, she got laid off like the rest of us. Who knows what that may have done to her psyche. Did she know how much she was cared about by them? Did they know if she had struggles and if so, what they were?
This recalled to mind a young mother I met last year while I was having a mani/pedi. She had a little boy, two years old, who had been born with a number of birth defects. He had been in and out
of the local children's hospitals several times and this time he'd been in for a month and the prognosis for him getting out was grim.
As it happened, I had made plans for a group of us to volunteer at the same hospital last summer. We were waiting for our contact when a woman walked up to me and asked if I remembered her. Sorry to say, I didn't but she remembered me. It was the lady from the nail salon.
.
They were taking their little boy off life support. He wasn't expected to die immediately. She had plans to take him outside in a
We never know what someone else is going through. We can ask and maybe get a glimpse of what that might be, but we are not in their moccasins, we are privy to the thoughts in their heads.
We need to remember that when we talk to people, especially those in fairly thankless jobs like customer service. We need to practice patience and kindness and appreciation and understanding.
Who knows - maybe it would have made a difference in the life of a young woman who died today.