Dellusions of Importance

So let me set the stage for you.

My mother had forgotten her cell phone charger and was going to D.C. for the night for business. I had to wait for the cable person to come and fix our cable but I told her that if I could, I'd try and run it out to her at the airport. Well, half way there, my mother and I decide that I wouldn't make it in time and decided I should turn around.

So I go and get off of the turnpike and pull into the toll booth.

In the toll booth was an old white man, with graying hair, but little of it on his head and much on his beard. He stood with a slight slouch and eyeballed me, a raggedy looking 23 year old, coming to his booth ((I had been cleaning out my mother's garage and working outside)).

I hand him the ticket and he responds "Fifty cents"

I had broken the 20 dollar bill I had on my earlier and all I had on me was a 10 and a 5.

So I hand him the five and say "Sorry man, this is all i've got."

He takes the money....and rolls his eyes.

And for some reason, that really pissed me off.

I mean, seriously, who the hell does he think he is? Looking down on me or becoming so "heavily burdened" with me handing him the 5, the lowest bill I had on me. God forbid I inconvenience him one bit, right?

So i spend the next 15 minutes pissed off because some old punk in a toll booth had the "gall" to roll his eyes at me.

But later, and what inspired me to write this, was this thought:

"who the hell do I think I am?"

When the incident occurred, I bit my tongue because I thought that the old guy wasn't worth my time. At the time, I really wanted to rip into him.

But looking back at it, there was potentially a lot more to the situation that I knew and/or realized.

The guy could have been having a bad day. He could have had a few people give him big bills when he saw change in their car. Maybe he saw change in my car I didn't and thought I was being a jerk. Maybe the guy hates his job. Maybe he is having marital problems. I mean, when you think about it, the possibilities behind the reason as to why he rolled his eyes because of the 5 dollar bill for a .50 cent toll are endless.

Or maybe he's just a dick.

I think the reason I am writing about this is to say there is always more to a situation than meets the eye. And I strongly feel that the reason a lot of people don't break out into fist fights over small quarrels is because, maybe subconsciously, they consider this fact.

Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not some touchy-feely guy who believes we should all hug and sing Koombaya.

But I feel that there, generally, is some underlying drive in most of us that makes us consider our own complicated situations and see them in other people. Yet in our heads, it may come off as "who does this person think they are? I'm not even going to waste my time with them" when in actuality, they know, deep down, that they've had their bad days and have done snarky/snide little gestures when they think they are hidden.

Sometimes, I will admit, my logic is a bit strange.

Hell, the guy might have seriously just been a jerk.

But I would bet there was something else.

And, looking at it in a broader spectrum, can you imagen all the things in your life, then all the things in another persons life, coming to a peak at that one interaction you may have with that person for the rest of your life and how all those experiences you and that other person have had will shape that one moment in life?

So looking back on it, I'll just shrug and say "maybe the ol' coot was having a bad day." and just try to ignore the fact that all those momentous things in my life and his only mounted to a roll of the eyes.