Pray.com sends emails every morning with a suggested reading and prayer. They do that year-round, even in October, which they’ve declared “Fruit of the Spirit Month.” Since 10/1, they’ve been sending a 2nd email later in the day. That email includes a suggested thing to do, and for me, not all suggestions require equal effort.
A few examples that I would compare to latrine duty or litter box duty are: forgiving someone who hasn’t apologized (The Damn Emperor and Alderman Dowd come to mind.) and praying for someone you dislike or disagree with (Zoning abolitionists first?).
Easier than forgiving someone who hasn’t apologized would be suggestions like letting someone else go first (traffic, line, or conversation), admitting a mistake and taking ownership, or asking someone for help. For me, those 3 suggestions vary and depend on the scenario and my mood at the time.
Then there are the easy suggestions, like checking in on a friend today, publicly shouting someone out on social media or in a group, or complimenting someone without expecting anything in return. Easy peasy. I’d like to think I do those things regularly, but I admit there’s always opportunity to improve.
Yesterday’s message was “praise someone behind their back.” Who have I recently praised behind their back, and what is the official criteria for “behind their back”? There are lots of great people, too many to enumerate without the risk of slighting someone in our mutual circles as groksters and readers, but what about ordinary people outside of the readership?
One might think of the mailman, the front desk person, your clergyman, or someone in a capacity that serves you routinely and does a good job, but what about more Round Robin or “next available agent” situations? You might not always get the same person as your bank teller, waitstaff, barkeep, oil delivery person or hair stylist, for example. That last group includes cashiers.
As a creature of habit, I grocery shop as early as I can on Sunday mornings and go to Market Basket on Fort Eddy Road. Sometimes I break the habit if I have other plans or when I’m running late, but I’m usually ready to pay shortly after 7am. It’s important to point out that all the MB employees I talk to, at that location and elsewhere, are friendly and likable people. I can’t speak for the staff that doesn’t interact with the public because I don’t know them, and I know that some of them are indeed responsible for a number of annoyances of varying magnitude over the years, but among the in-store staff, it’s the cashiers that get the steady in-person interactions, and you get to observe them doing their job as you’re waiting for them to receive your payment or waiting for them to finish up with the customer before you. Unlike at a lot of the big-box competition, many of which are aggressively trying to do away with cashiers, you can’t buy anything at Market Basket without talking to a cashier unless you’re a “nonverbal” person, to use Nurse Terese’s parlance.
Like Mr. Hand, I’m one of those people who doesn’t like MY time being wasted by others, so when I get a slow cashier or an unknown cashier and find myself behind a PITA customer, I make the most of the wait time by arranging my selections in a manner that facilitates the process. All frozen stuff goes together. All nonperishables go together. Eggs, bread, and items to be handled with care go together and go last. You get the picture. I also turn all the items so their bar codes face the cashier to reduce the time s/he must spend looking for them. However, there are several, but I’ve recognized one particular cashier who clearly knows her stuff and works fast enough that she doesn’t benefit from me arranging my items.
Like other department regulars, this cashier is almost always on duty at opening on Sunday mornings and usually works Register 9 or 11. She never gets stumped by customer inquiries or unmarked items (having to resort to the dreaded blinking-light switch); she’s always cheerful and friendly; she helps the bagger if s/he isn’t working as fast as she is; and she’s sometimes seen training other cashiers.
As a person with a good memory, I’m ashamed to admit that I don’t remember how long she’s been on the job, as I should because all MB employees have that data on their name tags. I would surmise that her memory is probably better than mine. I always pay with cash, so she has no reason to know my name, though I know hers. If my picture was part of a customer lineup, I wouldn’t be surprised if she said “oh yeah, I recognize her as one of the Sunday early morning regulars.”
This cashier’s name is Priscah, and she is the one I have selected to “praise behind her back.” I’ve decided that writing this article, which is definitely praise, counts as being behind her back because I ask the My Pillow guy’s favorite question and book title, “What are the odds?” What are the odds that Priscah reads Granite Grok? Higher than winning the lottery, but not much?
Is there someone you would like to praise behind their back? Why not tell us who and why in the comments?
