Karma, Patience, and a New Notebook

I was standing in line at the supermarket this morning after I remembered that I was almost out of coffee. The line was a bit long as we were stalled behind a couple of old gals rooting in their bags for the 14 cents they needed to make exact change. Two men in front of me motioned for me to go ahead of them as they had a full cart and I only had one item. I told them, thanks, but I wasn’t in a hurry.

One of my most steadfast rules in life is never to be in a hurry unless I can do something positive about it. If I'm in a hurry on my bike I can ride faster, if I’m on foot I can walk faster. Both of these outcomes are positive: I get more exercise. People who drive in a hurry are a fucking menace to society. You should have left ten minutes sooner so that you don’t put the lives of others at risk. When I’m at the supermarket I’m never in a hurry even when I sort of am in a hurry. I never change lines, ever, and I certainly would never ask someone if I could go ahead of them.

When the two men had made their purchase the total came to 40.02€ and the cashier asked them if they had the €.02. They didn’t so I handed the cashier the two cents. The two guys told me that wasn’t necessary but I assured them that I was fabulously wealthy and it was nothing. I also told them that it was a way to thank them for their earlier kindness. Everyone goes away happy in this scenario.

As I left the supermarket I noticed the variety store on the other side of the street and as I had a few minutes to spare I went in to look for a spiral notebook. It wasn’t just any spiral notebook I was looking for but a special brand that I couldn’t find anywhere, even after hunting in at least 15 different shops over the past couple of weeks (I take my pens and notebooks very seriously). Of course, they had my brand and, of course, this fact had nothing to do with the previous fact that I had given the two men two cents, but perhaps I left the supermarket in a better mood because I had done such an incredibly modest good deed and because of this altered state I had decided to look for my precious notebook.