I Suck

I freely admit it. I was supposed to update on Friday and I didn't. Hence my suckitudity.

But I'm updating today, and just to round out the learning theme I'll tell ya what I learned today. I learned that I am a very lucky person and that I'm growing up a bit, which is nice.

This morning I helped a lady walk to the elevators. I don't rightly know what the problem was, if she was recovering from a stroke or a car accident or some other dibilitating disease, but the point is that she needed to walk about ten feet to the elevators and she just couldn't do it anymore with just her cane. She had to ask a stranger to help.

Now, remember this is Monday morning before I've had any coffee. (I'm trying to use that as an explaination as to how confused I was at knowing what she needed from me.) I thought she was perhaps confused about the weird elevators we have. So at first I tried to find out where she was going so that I could direct her better. But that wasn't it. Could she just walk with me to the first bank of elevators? Absolutely, come on (I started to walk toward them). No, no. You'll have to help me. Ah, maybe she's sight impaired and just needs me to lightly guide her. I loop my arm in hers. *sigh* No, actually, I need to lean on you. Oooooooh! Okay. No problem. (By this time she was probably wishing she had asked someone a little more intelligent for help.)

But I finally managed, with lots of direction from her, to actually be of some help to her. We walked at a snail's pace to the elevators, something that normally would have taken me a few purposeful strides to reach from that distance. She told me she had thought she'd be okay to walk the full way, but had made the mistake of sitting down a bit at the coffee shop and her muscles had stiffened up. This of course made me feel lucky, because once I had helped her get to the elevators I could carry on with my day, briskly walking everywhere I needed to go. How long was it going to take her just to get where she needed to be? And then to get back?

We chatted pleasantly enough as we walked together and I learned another thing. I did not feel sorry for the nice lady. I felt that it was a terrible shame that she was in her state, but I didn't fall into that thing I usually do with the extremely elderly or people I think of as "less fortunate" and start to get all maudlin and depressed about it. Which might actually mean that I'm growing up a bit. I mean, yes, it's terrible that there are people who can't get about easily, but if it were me instead of her I'd have to get on with my life, wouldn't I? No sense whining about it. You've got to look on the bright side, etc.

Or maybe it had to do more with her. She was not a bit self-conscious about having to ask for help, so thankfully I didn't have to feel self-conscious about giving it. Plus, she had a pretty good sense of humor about it and cracked jokes about stealing the muffin I had just bought.

Ah, I'm not sure what I learned, really. Maybe I learned that I'm no Amelie, sure, but I'll do in a pinch.