A force with which to be reckoned
If some well-meaning person said to me, “Just be nice, Jan”, I’d probably feel a bit like gagging. (Wouldn’t you?) Bear witness now, as I take a dip into my inner drama queen, avoiding as best I can a full immersion in her oh-so seductive quicksand. My story follows.
Got up at the break of light, dressed quickly, out the driveway, 7 miles down to the medical center. Managed to find a place in the already crowded parking deck. Walked on the long walkway to the building, landing at the registration point.
After offering (twice) all the requested information, I knew I was in trouble. No, there was no appointment for me in the system. (Uttered a guttural “argh” only my inner drama queen could hear.) I was dispatched to the basement lab for a second-check of my appointment. The lab also deemed me persona non grata. Teeth tightly clenched, I returned to main registration and was informed I had no recourse for keeping the vanished appointment.
“$%@!”)!!
Oh, bravissima, the occasional adult who resides in me awakened just then! Taking my hysterical inner kid by the hand, she proceeded to a scheduler’s office on the second floor. Once the scheduler understood I was not trying to snooker her, she reinserted the appointment. Bolstered, I zipped back down to the first floor‘s registration point where…..
….the newly re-established appointment was not showing up in the system. I was counseled to be patient. My inner drama queen was so aching to bust out!
Ten minutes into my vitriolic internal snit fit, I was no longer persona non grata in the appointment system. After feeling bounced around like an inebriated pinball, ‘nice’ would not be the best adjective to describe my mood. More likely a candidate for a verbal tantrum, just aching to find daylight.
Suddenly, my better angels found me. (An angelic GPS for the wounded at heart?) We’d recently lived through the Covid plague. Externalizing my current emotional plague would help no one, including me. However, there’s now (drum roll…) a new bug going ‘round - the civility bug. Now that’s a bug I can live with. Much less wear and tear on my psyche.
In gratitude for my appointment being reestablished, I became a superspreader of the civility bug during the rest of my visit. I felt better, oh-so much better. It was clear as day that those who experienced my intentional sharing of the civility contagion perked up like wilted flowers plopped into water. Oh, yes, that civility bug is a force with which to be reckoned!
A much revised post from Dec. 14, 2023