What in the World is Wrong with People?

I took the bus to the doctor today. I do that once in a while, and I know I should do it more often. It’s my little bit to reduce my carbon footprint. I love the bus, so it isn’t really a sacrifice. When I was young, my nana (grandmother), who didn’t drive, would take the bus to our house and then I would go back to her house with her on the bus. I even love the diesel smell of buses, no doubt because that scent is linked to such wonderful memories of Nana.

I should have known it was going to be a strange day when on the ride to the doctor the bus doors started to act up in such a way that it became necessary for the driver to turn the bus off and back on every time someone exited the front doors. That was nothing compared to the trip back.

One block after I boarded the bus a blind woman with a guide dog boarded the bus. Right behind her a young woman stood screaming hatred and vindictive that if she couldn’t ride the bus for free, neither should the dog get to ride for free. Understandably, it took the woman a while to get on the bus and this idiot on the sidewalk yelled about the dog not only throughout the boarding process but even after the doors closed.

Mind you, this young lady was not mentally ill. She was, however, entitled – and entitlement is epidemic among our young people. Somewhere along the line, they have become convinced that the world owes them something. Maybe it goes back to those well-meaning childhood experiences wherein everyone who participates gets a ribbon or a prize so that nobody feels bad. This sets up the expectation that whatever you get, I get – or in this case, whatever your dog gets, I get. Somehow, I am willing to bet that idea doesn’t carry over to dinner time.

Here’s the newsflash, kids: Life doesn’t work that way. We are owed absolutely nothing. Nobody ever said life would be easy or life would be fair. What’s more, if you are screaming about a disabled person being able to use guide dogs or assistive devices or anything else that helps them to the live fullest life they can, you are an ass. A certified, raging ass who needs more than anything else to get over herself.

Humility is a lost art, lost to the feel good mentality of the self-help era. When folks spend their time worrying about whether everything is fair and becoming enraged when they believe it isn’t, they reflect not only their own entitlement, arrogance, and woundedness, but also their profound lack of humility.

If life was fair, that young lady would end up losing her vision, getting a guide dog, and boarding a bus while some moron screamed about the dog not having to pay a fare. I bet she wouldn’t sign up for that kind of fairness.