Rules and common sense!

The other day I went a local electronics store. As I was checking out, the cashier, who was a polite young man, asked me few questions.
"Can I have your name sir?"
I gave him my name.
"Can I have your address sir?"
I did that too.
"Can I have your date of birth sir?"
I was getting a little annoyed now. "What's the next question? My favorite color?!"
The young man got a little flustered. "We just like to know our customers very well, sir," he replied.
"I think I really feel very close to you already with the info I gave you," I smiled, taking the sting out of my words.
He smiled nervously. "May I ask you one last one question, sir?"
"Sure. Go ahead, I know you are just doing your job," I said.
"Would you like to buy warranty for the product you are planning to buy today?"
I couldn't help smiling as I held up the "product" I was planning to buy -- A pack of AAA batteries!

The young man that day was just doing his job, as trained by his superiors. But don't you think that the corporate culture in our society sometimes takes this "Doing my job" & "Just following rules" too far? Its good to follow rules, but a touch of reality check now & then, is not a bad idea. With the new Airport security rules, a full body pat down for an eighty-year-old grandma from Kansas can definitely be modified with a pinch of common sense thrown in.

With all the rules, regulations, stipulations and impersonal computers, common sense will die a slow death if not used commonly. Common sense is seeing things as they are, and doing things as they ought to be done.

"Common sense and sense of humor are the same thing, moving at different speeds. A sense of humor is just common sense, dancing!" ~ William James
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P.S.--Here's wishing you all a very happy Thanksgiving!!

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When life turns 'Topsy-turvy'.....

A happy couple, with two grown-up handsome boys, doing well financially.....and then one fateful day, 5 -years ago, the 21-year old elder son had an aneurysmal stroke that left him handicapped.....and the outlook on life for that particular family changed in an instant.

I had a long discussion with the father sometime last week. I could see the sadness in the depth of his eyes. The wrinkles on his face were more pronounced since I last saw him, brought on by the constant worry about his son. But he never complains.
"It's all God's will," he said. "We are still trying to adjust to the new normal in our lives. You never know when life throws you a twister."

I have believed over a long time that everything happens for a reason and it is generally for the best. Fate and Destiny have as many definitions as the number of people you ask. But I am hard pressed to find a positive spin on the young man's predicament. So I don't know whether I can believe the phrase "Everything happens for the best."

On the other hand, maybe there is more to events in our lives than what we can see or realize right now. We try to plan our lives but maybe there is a master plan, that God alone knows. A lot of times, I have ended up in places where I needed to be, not necessarily where I wanted to be. We can't control our destiny, but we can definitely shape it by making the right choices in moments of decision.

"Sometimes, perhaps, we are allowed to get lost, so that we may find the right person to ask directions from." ~ Robert Brault

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