Shame on Us

This Black Friday death is tragic. Why should someone die for our culture's desire to consume more and more and more.

It's all the more tragic because the article (and, apparently, the local authorities) blame the store for inaproppriate security measures. Perhaps the problem goes deeper...maybe we shouldn't have a shopping day that is so intense that we need security fences and stuff like that? Maybe enough is enough, and more stuff is not the solution.

In Defense of Cashiers

Last week a co-worker complained about the cashier she'd had at the grocery store the night before. Today I read an 'open letter to cashiers' on someone's blog. And so, I've had enough of rudeness and disrespect towards cashiers. (And just so you know, I cashiered for three years. Before that I was as disrespectful, both subtly and overtly, as anyone else in middle-class America. I've learned to think charitably towards cashiers the hard way.)

• They might have a headache, a backache, a neckache. Standing in one place all day hurts. Their feet probably hurt. They might be getting carpal tunnel syndrome because of the repetetiveness of scanning merchandise, loading bags, swiping credit cards, etc. They may be tired of being inside and only seeing artificial in-store fluorescent lighting. Be kind even if they are grumpy.
  
• They might have had it up to here and just can't smile at the 10,000th complainer come through their line being rude about something self-centered like "I couldn't find your toasted almonds." Be gracious even if they are distant.
  
• In big box stores, each department operates pretty independently from all the others; most likely the cashiers know nothing about any of the other departments and how they operate. It's not their fault you couldn't find the toasted almonds. Don't talk to them like they went and hid all the toasted almonds on purpose. Be patient even when you are annoyed. (Even though advertising makes you feel entitled to toasted almonds, and entitlement makes you feel anger when thwarted, remember that in context of eternity, you actually aren't entitled to toasted almonds. Treating someone like they are scum because your desire for toasted almonds was thwarted is rude. It's more than rude. It's sinful.)
  
• Don't talk on a cellphone when you are being checked out. It's (so very, very) rude. You hate it when cashiers have their own conversations; cashiers hate it when you totally, completely, and in all others ways ignore them and treat them like they don't matter.
  
• If you can't hang up your cellphone when it's your turn at the cashier, at least take a moment during your call and say something like this: "Excuse me, Loretta, just a moment...Hi, Cashier, I'm sorry I'm on the phone. This is an important call...yes, Loretta, I'm back..." At least you are acknowledging that a person is waiting on you, even though it's not as good as hanging up the phone in order to interact with your cashier.
  
• Keep in mind that most stores require employees, especially cashiers, to do their darndest to solicit new business. It's their job to offer you more stuff, another credit card, or whatever. Whatever you decide to do--accept or decline--be polite.
  
• Be patient if your cashier doesn't have change for your big bill. They will get change. In the meantime, you can be patient.
  
• If you've been waiting in a long line, it is not the cashier's fault. Do not take your frustration out on them. (Your frustration may not even be valid; it might be fruit of self-centeredness and sinful entitlement.) (Take advantage of the long wait to read all those magazines they have right there, or to interact with your kids, or to memorize Scripture, or to pray for the people you see around you while in the long line.)
  
• Cashiers know that kids tend to melt down in the checkout line. They have seen it all. (I have seen it all. Consequently, I will raise my children perfectly when I have them. *wink, wink*) Just deal with your child--you do know your own child, after all--deal with your child as best as you can. (I think I shall also blog about parenting in a checkout lane.)
  
• If there's something a cashier can do for you (like help you load your groceries into your cart while you wrangle your kids), and they seem to be ignoring you, they might not be ignoring you on purpose. To get their help, just ask them. Be polite, and say something like, "Excuse me, could you help me load these bags into my cart while I keep my kids in hand? That would be very helpful. Thank you." Don't expect them to read your mind, because they can't.
  
• If you shop with little kids, they are learning all their social norms from you. Do you want them to grow up treating cashiers (and other employees) like second-class citizens? No, of course not. Be careful the behaviors and attitudes you model for your kids.
  
• Do you think your cashier is too slow? They might be new. They might be tired, sick, fighting a migraine, worried about something really intense. They might be slow thinkers, or just not as quick to process as you are. They might have a lower intelligence and are working as fast as they can.
  
• If you know Jesus, think about how He would treat cashiers. Would He treat them like they were expendable? invisible? stupid? irrelevant? Cashiers are used to being treated--by customers and bosses alike, which is sad--as if they aren't very important. You have a chance to change their day by being 'Christ with skin on' for them. Remember that they too are eternal souls, valuable and precious in God's sight.
  
• Do they act like they have stopped caring? It seems minor, but it's actually the saddest symptom of all. We were designed to care about our work and to derive pleasure from it. If they've stopped caring, they need your care, concern, and consideration all the more. Be 'Christ with skin on' for them by caring about them even when they don't deserve it.

Politcal Thoughts

I'm not a political thinker. It doesn't interest me. It seems too distant and, honestly, annoying. Instead of sincere efforts to (1)provide for our nation and (2)bring true leadership, it seems more like an extended power play. It's like Survivor, except that these contestants play the game in offices while wearing suits. (Please! Survivior is a game show that's intriguing because of the hunger, the thirst, the gross-food-eating-challenge and the blatant obviousness of the game. A government should not play itself out like a game show!)

Anyhoo, here is an extended quote from Intellectuelle that also expresses what I'm thinking this morning:

Let's face it, there is no way that any of us can become educated enough about all the complex systems that run our country to even know what really would be best in many situations. This is not to say that all issues aren't clear-cut. Some are. It's also not to say that I don't think we should vote. We should.

I just think that what we actually vote for isn't presidential candidates but for our own hopes and dreams. It's good that we can hope and dream. It's even better that we have a lot more choice in this country than those in many other parts of the world can even dream of. We have a responsibility to honor this freedom of choice and...choose. But we must also realize, I think, that we don't have the power we think we do; that politicians and their policies don't always have the power we wish they did; and that, often, they do actually have a lot more power than is good for either them or us.

But God, thank God, is sovereign, and good. God is good. Even when it may seem very hard to believe, we must have faith to see that this is true. And if we are citizens of His kingdom, we need not worry, in the face of eternity, about whatever happens, seemingly good or bad, here on this earth.

In light of the sickening consumerism I observed while working in retail...and the way the population was so humiliatingly manipulated by marketing campaigns...this quote sums up part of my response this morning.

More politi-blogging to come.

Educating. Magic.

When I was in college, learning about being a secondary (not elementary!) teacher, I sneered at the Elementary Education majors. Then, I taught 5th grade for a while. I learned a bit of respect, but didn't really want to teach the little kids full-time.

I took a college class last year: Developmental Psychology. Learning all sorts of intricacies about how people grow and develop through all the stages of their young lives...awesome. Our Creator-God is so wise and gracious to us!

But I still never thought I'd want to teach the little guys. But last week, I got to do something new. I was a classroom assistant in a little-kids' classroom. Yes, there were 17 kindergarten-2nd graders.

I thought I would be irrelevant and stodgy to them, but I really got to like them. They were so cute. They thought new things were adventuresome instead of tedious. They attempted (and succeeded!) most of the crafts and activities we threw at them. They thought I was the coolest. They drew me pictures. They gave me goodbye hugs. They gave me good-morning hugs. Aaaaaaw. (Hugs make me melt.)

I sat with one boy on the bus after our field trip. He is a kindergartener. He told me all about his school, his teacher, his classmates. We talked about what we had done on the field trip (we saw sheep! we learned about spinning wool! we got koolaid packets to dye the wool they gave us!).

Here's the best part: he recently learned to read (he learned the letters and how to sound-out words, at least), and I helped him read the word "LEMON"...then I showed him the picture of lemons on his koolaid packet. His eyes lit up and he read the word again, and again, and pointed to the picture. "They're the same thing!" he said.

Magic. I love little kiddles now.

'Re-Entry'

Whew! I have been out of commission for a long time! Where have I been? Well...here and there, traveling and relaxing, but mostly hanging out with my family.

I miss them a lot when I am not with them. My life is here in Chattanooga, so I sometimes even miss them when I am with them...because their lives are away from Chattanooga.

We've hit the ground running as far as our 're-entry' into Normal Life. Except that I didn't bring a dish to the Sunday Potluck at church.

My main project has been to (as seems to be the case for me) find a job. This time I'm looking everywhere but retail because I'm DONE with retail. My ideal job would be a middle school Language Arts classroom somewhere in the area, and that is what we have been hoping and praying for...but it's hard to maintain the level of faith it requires to pray boldly and with faith.

Good thing my faith was a gift to begin with and comes with maintenance guaranteed. Seriously, if maintaining my faith was solely up to me, I'd be sunk.

I Have a Confession...

I see a lot of people I know where I work. (That's not the confession.)

Saturday at work, I saw a former professor's wife and her twin daughters. My husband coached the girls in cross-country and in track.

I hid behind the girls' bikini rack so they wouldn't see me. I just didn't want to talk to them, didn't want to explain why a teacher is working at this store, didn't want to go through the false cheer.

I saw them leaving, too, and hid again.

I'm embarrassed that I hid and embarrassed about all the reasons (and potential reasons) that I hid. Twice.

Irony of the Day (Yesterday, 8 May 2008)

Every. Single. One. of these shirts was on the floor in a heap or hanging askew from the hangers yesterday. Every single one. Some of the hangers were still hanging from the rack, some were mixed in the pile of shirts, and some were scattered on the floor.

None of the other clothes in the area were that trashed.

Drips and Drabs: Wednesday, May 7

It's been a while since I've posted! Let me give you a few glimpses into how things are right now:

• Work is harder than I thought it would be. The physical part isn't hard, other than being up so late (I don't leave till 11pm...and Ian has to come pick me up!). It's the emotional part and the spiritual part that's hard. Working for a massive corporation that treats its employees (and customers) like cogs in a machine rather than the Imago Dei is hard. However, God's grace is present, and it's new every morning!
• Regarding God's grace: the Children of Israel wandered around Egypt for 40 years, but their clothes and their shoes did not wear out because of God's grace. In the same way, God's grace won't wear out no matter how many years I walk around before I arrive in the Promised Land.
• I meditate a lot on Psalm 37 ('Fret not yourself because of evildoers') because it's written in response to a life where the wicked prosper. The first few verses feature seven commands of what to do in response to the evildoers and their unjust prosperity. Pop over on that hyperlink and read it for yourselves.
• I've also been studying Psalm 139 ('You have searched me and you know me'). I was needing some self-esteem help because I was relying on my own and others' assessment of me to feel happy about myself, when instead I need to rely on the Lord's assessment of me to feel happy about myself! It occurred to me that this is a Messianic Psalm. It prophesies Christ's death in the same way the story of Jonah does, and since it teaches us about the Messiah, it teaches that Christ was an actual human person in his physical body.
• A young woman in our church is getting married on Saturday. Just about everyone in the church is helping one way or another, and I'm looking forward to another wedding...what a great lesson about the depth of the Lord's love for us, his bride.
• Ian's track season keeps plugging along...now he is helping the high school track team with their big season-ending meets. They hosted a big meet yesterday afternoon and will host the second part of that meet this afternoon...18 schools!...and I really wish I could go.

I think that's all. Keep in touch.

The Big Employment News

I have worked two shifts already. The first shift, I trained on the register. Today, I trained on the sales floor.

The orientation and training so far have been outstanding. They've clearly communicated expectations and set forth the basics of this store's culture in the orientation, and my training for actual tasks and jobs has been good. The people I've trained with have not only taught me how to do what needs to be done, but have also explained the why of how we do what needs to be done. I really appreciate that! It helps me learn, and by gum I'm determined to succeed at this job!

I see a lot more people I know at this store than I do at my previous job at Mia Cucina. I also see a lot more people I know at this store than at my very first retail job. It's something about the demographic.

I am so, so thankful to be working! Remind me to never, ever complain! (I worked near a Super Complainer today and it was so unflattering to her and such a downer for everyone near her.) And besides, I have nothing to complain about.

Anyway...so far, so good.