Different - Monday, November 28, 2011

If you want something different, you have to do something different.

If you want something to be different, you have to do something different.

Doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure that out, but sometimes we need a reminder.  Sometimes we need a shake up.  Sometimes we need to look into the mirror.

Oh my word, I could write about Black Friday shopping - now there’s something different!  I could write about line cutters, elbow throwers, fighters, self seekers, and manipulators - all of which I experienced in my first Black Friday shopping experience of Thanksgiving night.  I could tell you I am not sure I will shop Black Friday again, especially at Walmart and especially for 600 thread count sheets.  But instead I want to talk to you about a quiet, faithful diligent man and his wife and their impact on the Black Friday culture.

If attendance had been taken in Walmart on Thursday evening, it could have rivaled that of Memorial Stadium.  The store was packed.  Moving through the aisles was not possible.  It was a bottle neck in every direction. Patience was needed for waiting your turn to move a head 6 inches to a foot at a time.  Patience and dignity was needed to maintain sanity.  While many were pushing, shoving, and demanding for themselves, there was one man acting as a calming force in the fervor. 

 From the end of their cart, he steered his wife and their load; he watched the crowd and gently moved forward.  Hundreds of shoppers were trying to form one line for one cashier and check out.  Pushing was only surpassed by the length of time between moves.  As the hour passed and we were not to the register yet, he built a shield to allow those of us (about 4 customers) who had been shoved aside and cut off.  He stood firmly yet gently against the shoving and aggressiveness.  He gestured to us to be next at the cashier and then the next few customers around us as well, watching out not for himself but for the fairness of others.

He was a difference maker in contrast to the selfish nature of the crowd!  What an impact!  What an impression he made.  He wanted the crowd mentality to be changed to civility.  He made the change.

If you want the world to be different,  you have to be the change.

I don’t know this man’s name, his career, his address....  but I know his legacy!  He is the change the world needs for the return to dignity, propriety and nobility.