{"id":249,"date":"2008-06-07T03:47:17","date_gmt":"2008-06-07T10:47:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jerrysjuicebar.com\/blog\/?p=249"},"modified":"2008-06-08T04:51:46","modified_gmt":"2008-06-08T11:51:46","slug":"pretending-you-care","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jerrysjuicebar.com\/blog\/?p=249","title":{"rendered":"Pretending you Care"},"content":{"rendered":"

After a particularly chaotic morning that involved a contractor, cleaners, a broken air conditioning system (that, on the first day of a 3-day heat wave in Northern Virginia), three client calls, one canceled appointment, two pots of coffee, all accompanied by a neurotic dog … I head to the airport.<\/p>\n

Again.<\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"<\/a>I’m in the “preferred” TSA line a Dulles — a small benefit from my peripatetic life —\u00a0 and about to go through the standard exercise of placing shoes, jacket, 1 quart ziploc baggie, and laptop in two gray bins when a young man puts his outstretched hand facing my sternum, moves it up and down in a stopping motion and says smartly, “Sir, this line is now closed.”\u00a0 I look down the hallway to a scene the conjures images of mass deportation.\u00a0 “But ah …” A diplomatic protest is immediately shot down.\u00a0 There is a perfunctory “I’m sorry sir”.<\/p>\n

I think to myself:\u00a0 “at least pretend that you care.”<\/p>\n

I’m now at C20 for the United flight to Boston.\u00a0 It is the start of summer which means summer storms and plane delays.\u00a0 The 2:18 flight is not scheduled to depart for 3:30.\u00a0 It is 3:20 and nothing is happening.\u00a0 I saunter to the counter.\u00a0 Despite the fact that there is absolutely no one save the desk clerk there, I have to work hard to get his attention.\u00a0 “Any update?”\u00a0 I ask.\u00a0 Continuing his aimless gaze somewhere far away from my face, the clerk says robotically, “The flight is scheduled to depart at 3:30,” he says.\u00a0 “It doesn’t look that that’s going to happen,” I say.\u00a0 “That’s all I know,” he said, still not looking at me with his voice trailing off.<\/p>\n

Again to myself:\u00a0 “at least pretend that you care.”<\/p>\n

I begin to play a game.\u00a0 From flight to cab to hotel to store to working out to restaurant to coffee shop … I’m looking around and trying to observe who actually cares about what they’re doing and about the people around them.\u00a0 I find — and perhaps not surprisingly — that there a lot of very disengaged, disaffected, and desensitized people out there who see to simply be going through the motions of work and human existence.<\/p>\n

That in turn, makes those who are truly interested, empathetic, concerned, and caring all the more outstanding.\u00a0 Take Cindy at a Richmond-based HVAC service.\u00a0 We met over a phone that day, my having found her via the Internet Yellow Pages.\u00a0 She wanted to help.\u00a0 She called me sir and spent a lot of time wanting to know what worked best for me.\u00a0 She made extra phone calls to keep me and my son in college up to date.\u00a0 She got someone to fix the air conditioning.<\/p>\n

Most people — at least for today — however fell into the “pretending you care” category.\u00a0 There was some small talk with the cab driver.\u00a0 But I could tell that he really wanted to make calls on his cell phone.\u00a0 The door man and the desk clerk at the hotel had nice smiles but were hardly enthusiastic.\u00a0 The waiter was efficient but I got the sense that she figured a 15% tip was a high probability absent some catastrophe.\u00a0 Polite, efficient, accompanied with a smile.<\/p>\n

I look up the definition of “care.”\u00a0 The verb.<\/p>\n