As a bleeding heart liberal and someone who routinely rails against the inhumanity of humans I have a shameful confession to make. I find that I often avoid handicapped people. I think it's a knee jerk reaction and I don't like it in myself. Look, I know that someone with a severe physical handicap isn't "contagious", I know I won't "catch" what they have and yet I shy away and I don't want to. I feel like an ass for behaving this way but I also don't think I'm alone with this horrible prejudice.
Last Sunday I was in the local grocery store and as we all know, Sunday's at any grocery store are not a great experience. The lines were, of course LONG. I surveyed the scene and noticed a very short line, I made sure the light above the register was still lit so that I didn't race over only to find out she was closing her lane. When I was sure I had a chance of making it there before everyone discovered this rare and beautiful event of a short line on a Sunday I bolted over to grab that prime spot. Once there I noticed that the cashier had some very severe physical handicaps, I looked around and wondered if everyone else was shying away because, like me, they didn't want to be confronted with this reality on a Sunday afternoon. It was tough to tell but it was clear that this short line was not growing.
I took a breath, silently called myself a horrible name and proceeded to unload my cart onto the belt. When it was my turn, I made eye contact and treated her the way she deserved to be treated…like she was the exact same as me, like she had feelings and emotions, got mad and sad and happy. I made the usual small talk, I told her I had my own bags with me and would bag my stuff. We worked together nicely and I pointed out that she was too quick for me to keep up with her so my bagging had lagged behind her cashiering. She dug in and lent me a hand and we finished our transaction.
I hope I grew a little bit from that and what else did I learn? That maybe I can grow a little bit and at least for now, until my fellow humans catch up with me, I can also get the shortest line at the grocery store on a Sunday afternoon it turned into a bit of a karmic bonus for me, choose to try to grow and get out of the store faster.
And THAT'S how I got on the shortest grocery line this past Sunday!
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