I frequent Starbucks after I teach class or exercise. It’s where I reward myself for a great workout. Ahhhh a coffee, or tea.
What I notice — no hear. LOUDLY. Every single time I’m there, are people dragging chairs along the floor so that they can sit down. The sitting part isn’t what I’m griping about, although; Sitting IS the new smoking. It’s the noise. The piercing LOUD noise of heavy metal being pulled. I equate this to the sound of fingernails on a chalk board. Not pleasant, nor necessary.
Why Starbucks doesn’t put pads on the bottoms of their chairs is another story. More baffling to me is why people choose to drag rather than lift. Ok, obviously, it’s easier. So is shuffling your feet rather than lifting them. Both annoying.
It seems like we’re all about ‘easy.’ It’s a symptom of a greater issue; laziness. More important it’s the lack of awareness. Everything seems to be amped up; LOUD talking. LOUD noises. BIG gestures. I believe that we’re unaware of what we’re doing. Every time, our actions speak louder than our words – so what are you saying when you’re not being aware? Are we demonstrating our me-centric approach to life?
Oh WOW, you can’t make this stuff up. At this very moment as I’m writing this post, a young man just walked into Starbucks speaking so loudly on his smartphone, that all heads turned. ALL. HEADS. TURNED to look at him. He is THAT LOUD. He didn’t miss a beat. He kept talking, and talking … and … I’m secretly wishing he would leave. I’m pushing him out the door with my mind.
When did we become so complacent? Was it the dawn of the selfie; parent coddling; The zero-patience era; The [fill in the blanks]? It’s getting out of hand. My brain is screaming for people to STOP. LOOK. AND LISTEN to what they’re doing.
The NOISE of the chair dragging across the floor is a symbol – NO a symptom of what’s really going on. And yet, I DON’T KNOW WHAT’S REALLY GOING ON. I need help in deciphering the language between actions and words. What is it? Are we not happy with the lives that we’re leading? Are we angry with where we’re at in life? Are we disappointed …. and the only way we feel we can be heard is to drag that chair across the floor? I don’t know. I’m asking.
This one small action of dragging a chair is weighing heavy on my mind right now. Probably because it sounds so awful. There’s nothing like writing something in real time that erks you. In experiencing it now – there is no; “Remember when I heard that metal chair drag across the floor? It was so bad.” Well, actually, it is.