Heightened Emotions

 

Last week, 

When I parked my car to go into Starbucks, 

I parked beside another car. 

Crazy, huh? 

Even though I was in my parking space,

I opened the door carefully to make sure not to bump the car beside me.

 

As I was getting my cup to go in,

I heard someone beating on the window of the mattress store in front of me 

And frantically pointing at me as if something was very wrong.

I looked and didn’t see anything weird,

But the next thing I knew the guy was coming out of the store to speak with me!

He exclaimed, “Please do not let your car door touch the car beside you.”

I looked and it was not touching the car beside me, so I said, 

“It’s not.”

He said, “It was! We saw it!”

Annoyed, and someone shaken by the confrontation,

And afraid that the customer that the mattress store worker was defending would come out before I had finished my coffee 

And intentionally open his door to hit and dent my car,

I moved my car all together. 

 

Now, if the car would have been a brand new, expensive, spotless, scratchless, and dentless car,

Then I might have understood the disrespect with which I was spoken to.

Maybe.

But it was an old Nissan with plenty of wear and tear.

There was no reason for the owner to be that concerned about someone gently opening her car door to get out. 

I didn’t dent his car.

I didn’t scratch it. 

I didn’t have my key out, actively keying the side of the car.

But that mattress store worker sure made me feel like I had done something really bad and wrong.

 

We live in a society of heightened emotion,

Where the smallest things cause the biggest reactions

And insignificant things escalate to the point of violence. 

 

May we be a people who know when to argue back and when to walk away.

And may we somehow balance out the crazy with our sense of peace. 

 

Amen. 

 

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By the way,

I don’t understand the point of the mattress stores in general, 

And I’ve hardly ever seen anybody in that particular store at all. 

But I can guarantee you that I will not set foot in that store to buy a mattress after being scolded by one of the workers

For an infraction that I did not commit.