This afternoon happened to find me in the “health and beauty” section of Target (arguably concepts that left me behind long, long ago! 🙂 ) to get a last minute item for Katie.
As I’m looking for the item in question, a nice lady was either stocking the area, “pushing reshop” or “zoning” the area. Katie’s described the various activities from time to time but it wasn’t immediately obvious which one was in play.
I just happened to look in her direction when the tubes of shampoo she was trying to line up on the bottom shelf were completely uncooperative and tipped over creating a small pile in front of the shelf.
It was immediately obvious this wasn’t the first time that had happened.
Clearly whoever decided that these items needed to be displayed on a shelf with the magnetic guides that were less than an inch tall had never seriously studied physics whilst at school. I’m not convinced that making the plexiglas guides six to eight inches tall would have helped as the containers were still wobbly and top-heavy and the two inch diameter lid isn’t quite enough of a stable platform.
I could think of several satisfying phrases (curses, really!) in Russian that I’d be inclined to think of were I in the same situation and the look on her face suggested that even with the difference of the current language between us, we were certainly communicating on a subliminal level.
That’s why I stuck around and dropped to my knees on the deck to try to help her sort out that frustrating mess in spite of her objections that “I didn’t have to”.
In so doing, I learnt that I really wasn’t much better at getting those tubes of shampoo to straighten up and stand properly in their place on that bottom shelf and probably looked a bit silly trying so she should at least take some solace from that. They’d have probably been better served having a long box that you could slide onto the shelf and open it at one end for people to retrieve the tubes and add them to their trolley.
But then that Target would look like Aldi and that’s not exactly the vibe they’re aiming for!
More importantly, we’ve all had that sort of frustration at one point or another to the point where we’re figuring that the Egyptian God of Frustration (as Zack Allen described Daffy Duck to Narn Ambassador G’Kar on “Babylon 5”) had clearly turned it’s back upon us.
More importantly, even though my coordination and fine motor control wasn’t worth beans against those ill-designed shampoo bottles trying to reside on a shelf with inadequate support along the sides of the tubes, there was a moment of eventual triumph over shared adversity.
She was absolutely right that I could have left her to it and carried on.
But it was a honour and a privilege to try to be helpful and if anything maybe give her a bit of a laugh or two along the way.
That’s the kind of moment that those of us born on Wednesday will cherish even if the rest of the world thinks we’re completely daft for doing so.
When such a moment comes, seize it and hang on with all of your might. No matter how frustrating the rest of the day may be, those are the little moments that can turn the day completely round! 🙂