There Are Good People

 



   C and I have a fundamental disagreement about people in general. C believes that most people are good, kind and willing to help. I believe that most people are unkind, mean and unwilling to help. I believe that some people enjoy being cruel and mean. C believes that bullies and those that are mean are just badly hurt people who have not dealt with their feelings.

   Our opinions are based on our differing experiences. C for the most part has been treated kindly all his life. The mothers of his friends treated him like another son. (C's mother left the family when he was six years old.) Halfway through his senior year of high school a family took him in when they found out he was boarding with an elderly lady. (C's dad moved and C didn't want to change schools.)   Between the school bullying and working in community pharmacy, my experience has been quite different. I still remember a man that spit at me when I didn't have his prescription ready ( his prescriber had not called it in yet.), the doctor who would not allow me to take a phone prescription because he didn't believe women could be pharmacists( this was in the mid 1990s) and the man who threw his prescription bottle at me because it didn't have refills on it. (The prescriber didn't authorize refills) 

   C chides me for my attitude. I tell him that when I do find someone who is kind or helpful, I'm very grateful. This was the case on Monday.

   C and I were at Costco. After paying for our items, we grabbed some lunch in the food court. C set down two slices of pizza and our drinks. In the process of sitting down, he knocked over one of the drinks. I quickly moved out of the way and grabbed my phone so it wouldn't get wet. There was soda all over the table, one of the seats and the floor. Two teen girls appeared with napkins to help clean up the mess. They mopped up the floor and helped with the table. Their father appeared with something to put the wet napkins in so he could take them to the garbage. We thanked them. In what seemed like a very few minutes, everything was cleaned up. The girls and their father walked away.

  Things like this remind me that there are good people. Maybe there are more of them than I think....

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