A Lesson in Rudeness

I was at McDonalds today and in less than an hour watched two different arguments between complete strangers. Both started with one person being extremely rude to another.

In the first situation a young man was in line ordering. He had his ears gauged but had taking the gauges out. This left a huge hole in his ear lobe. Though I do not find that particular style of body piercing to be particularly attractive, it's his ear so I just decided to look elsewhere. The man in the next line over decided to make a rude comment. He said that he found the boy's ears "disgusting" and then went on to say that he thought it was "unfair" that the boy would come into a place with "gross ears" and expect us to eat. The boy made some comments back. I thought for sure the two were going to come to blows. Finally, the boy took his order and left in anger. I am sure he was embarrassed. Though I did not care for his ears either, I thought it was rude for a stranger to comment publicly on them and speak negatively to others about it.

The second situation happened about 30 minutes later. Two older ladies were having a conversation between themselves and said something negative about a politician. In my opinion, the statement was accurate, but I was not a part of the conversation so I just kept eating my salad. They were talking quietly between themselves, not loudly or addressing any of the other patrons. But apparently one fellow three tables away heard it because he suddenly jumped up and ran over to the ladies screaming at them about how the previous politician in that office was far worse than the current one. The ladies were quite taken about by his brash interruption into their private conversation. They responded by saying they disagreed with the young man. But he want on and on, berating them for their opinions. Finally two older men nearby told him to sit down or they would intervene. He sat down but kept making comments. Being a bit frustrated by his rudeness, I snapped a picture of him having his tantrum. He saw me take the picture and stormed out angry. (It occurs to me that it was rude of me to take his picture without his permission, so I'm guilty of rudeness too!)

As I reflect on this experience, it just seems so odd that complete strangers were all so rude together. Why did they feel so compelled to speak their opinions publicly to people they did not know? Why did they cause a scene? What has happened to our society when such behavior has become acceptable?

Lord, help us all learn to respect each other more.

For more devotionals like this one, consider Touching the Footprints of Jesus.