In today’s stressful climate, it is not unexpected for those in service to the public to sometimes be short-tempered. Having been a waitress for many years, a job I thoroughly enjoyed, I am very familiar with the rude and challenging customers who are inevitably a part of most days, and whose behavior often affected my own.
My daughter-in-law, who worked as a chain pharmacy manager, told me dozens of stories of being abused by customers, yelled out, spit at, and even threatened. She was having trouble staying polite and in good spirits. I was happy when she finally resigned. No one should have to take that kind of abuse.
Then I remember the time, years ago, when a customer behind me in line as I was checking out, asked the cashier how she was doing. “I am great,” she said with a broad grin. “It does not serve any purpose being miserable, does it?”
I have remembered that moment because my father had little patience for miserable people. He was not referring to those who had good reason to be unhappy, or sad, or frustrated, but those people who were simply nasty, irritable, and just plain unpleasant, and who sucked the joy out of other people’s lives.
I think his feelings stemmed from living through the depression when he had to give up school in eighth grade to support his mom. His father was killed when he was eight. If anyone had a reason to be miserable, it was him, but I never heard him complain. However, I did hear him whistle a lot.
I know my father would have liked the cashier. He appreciated people who could still find a reason to smile in the middle of life’s difficulties. A smile is a contagious joy; he used to tell me, which is why he was drawn to my mom.
In these challenging times, joy may often seem to be out of reach. We are overwhelmed with doubt and fear for our future; many are struggling financially; many are lonely and unable to connect with friends and loved ones. Many are ill or hungry.
We expect that those who are hurting will not be smiling or feeling joy in times like these. However, we can be the smile they are missing, the joy, even if momentary, absent from their hearts.
Smile at someone, be present to someone, and remember the words of St. Teresa of Avila: “Christ has no body on earth now, but yours, no hands but yours, no feet but yours; yours are the eyes through which he looks with compassion on the world; yours are the feet with which he walks to do good; yours are the hands with which he blesses all the world.”
Mary Regina Morrell is a Catholic journalist, author, and syndicated columnist who has served the dioceses of Metuchen and Trenton, New Jersey, and RENEW International in the areas of catechesis and communication.