Considering Kindness: How a Quick Connection Can Shift Your Perception
And someone else’s, too
I walked up to the checkout line with a handful of items for dinner, pleased that only one person stood in front of me. Exhausted after a weekend of parenting six kids alone and runing from back to back to back basketball games all morning and afternoon, I was more than ready to throw some food on the table for the kids and curl up on the couch for the rest of the night.
The man in front of me wore warm clothes, a fleece earflap hat pulled down tightly over his head, and a mask covering most of his face. All I could see were his worn, piercing blue eyes. He may have been 30 or 60; it was impossible to tell. But he looked just as tired as I felt.
The cashier scanned his three items. “$5.64 is your total.”
He pushed his card into the card reader. It didn’t work.
“Go ahead and try again,” she encouraged. Still nothing. “Maybe swipe it?”
His eyebrows furrowed, and his mounting frustration was nearly palpable. I reached for my card to pay for him when suddenly the machine beeped. He stood there.
“You’ll have to follow the instructions on the screen to complete your transaction, sir.”
