People can be nicer.
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Renee's Corner
| by Renee Giragos |
posted:
September 12th, 2002 |
People Can Be Nicer
 This
is a conclusion I drew since my return from Ireland, where I recently spent
a week. I spent one week where the landscape was green, the living simple,
and above all, the natives kind. I did not expect to fall for the Irish, I
just did. I did not mean to start liking them, but I did and there is no
way out. Now I handle my Irish withdrawal with writing therapy, but I do
not know how effective it is, since it is only making me increasingly miss
the little green island.
The first clue that the Irish people were an extra-nice bunch hit me
head-on no later than baggage claim. There I was, in desperate need of a
luggage cart (what with my two heavy suitcases, stuffed with all the
accouterments a fashionable girl would require for navigating goat- and
sheep-filled terrain), but with no Irish currency to buy the use of one.
"Hmm...that machine doesn't take American dollars," I thought to myself.
Well, the Irish had already figured some of us would arrive on their soil
with no Euros to call our own, so...being business-minded and shrewd as the
Irish are, they had set up a currency exchange bureau right next to the
luggage cart reserve. Wrong! The right answer, in more ways than one, is
that they let little me use a luggage cart for free. Gratis. Without
charge. No money, no problem; you want to use a cart? Go right ahead!
Pretty nice, huh? I wondered why we had never considered letting tired
travelers without change cart their bags around for free -- and why our
technological superiority had not come up with the idea of putting hand
brakes on luggage carts like the Irish had. Little questions...but big
answers
Answers like, we are too greedy to
be nice. Answers like, we can do anything, but maybe human comfort should
not be a huge priority if the market will not favor a substantial return on
an invention of convenience. It is nice to be altruistic, but let's not get
carried away!
During my short hiatus across the Atlantic, I learned more about us -- and
about myself -- and how nice we can be if we want. I'll save the rest --
until next week...Peace out.
email me at renee@tipsybottle.com
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