A Random Story with no Compassion

This is a story about my lack of compassion. There’s usually a situation that causes me to be compassionate. But from time to time, I have brief life lessons that show me how uncompassionate I can be. I try to be compassionate but is an extreme effort. I think I’ll write a book…”The Uncompassionate Christian”. The struggle is real…random people are hard to like.

I’ve visited my father-in-law in the hospital the past few days and I’ve found that hospitals and malls have similarities. Upon arriving at the hospital you have only one thing on your mind: getting to your acquaintances room and see that they are doing well, then leave after a minimal amount of time. Kind of like at the shopping mall. Men at the mall: get in, get product, get out. Accomplishing these goals even require similar steps. -First there’s the parking lot, the lobby, elevators and halls to get to the target. You have to find a parking spot, walk to the hospital main hall past Starbuck’s and then work your way to the elevators and down the hallways until you reach your final destination.

It’s just plain common sense that when you go to a hospital you should be on the compassionate side because you just don’t know what everybody you come in contact with is going through. You are passing friends and relatives of people who’s children are sick, parents are dying, major surgeries, cancer, etc…You just don’t know. So lets try to make an effort, huh? The problem is it resembles a mall where it’s hard to give a damn about anybody’s wellbeing.

Lack of compassion building up:

Hospital parking lot: people laughing and taking their time crossing the street. Don’t they know tragic things are happening. After giving them the evil eye for slowly crossing the street, I pull in to the garage.

Parking: Parked next to a family getting ready to go party in the hospital. Collecting items from their car, like they were going to walk across the lot to the beach. Fun, fun!

Lobby: Starbuck’s aroma through the lobby. People are dying here and these guys a slinging caffeine like it’s going out of style. Might I make a suggestion? Full server bar.

Now the people…..

Walking in the lobby behind a family that either didn’t know where they were going or were lost. Attempt to go around is blocked by Big Mama who stopped in the middle of the crowd to ponder which direction to take. I’m able to maneuver around her and her family toward the elevator.

At the elevator, me, a nurse with a wheelchair patient, and a lady. I hit the UP arrow and two or three other walkups get on. Clearly enough room on the elevator but we had to adjust to allow the persistent others to get on. I made a funny joke telling a dad he has a monkey on his back(his daughter). They look at me and feel sorry for the old man. Little girl buried her face in her dad’s shoulder.

One lady almost got off on the wrong floor. I joked that it’s always fun getting off on a random floor and then try to figure out where you’re at….she wasn’t amused.

End compassion.

I need some practice.