I'd Much Rather Just Stay Ignorant

This week, on "What Bugs Susan"...

We have faxing at Staples. You'd think in today's world, faxing would be obsolete. I mean, you can scan and email just about anything. Yet every day we've got a line out the wazoo for faxing. So right above this fax machine we've got this sign that says, "Self-Service Fax Machine". Pretty self-explanatory, right? It's even got instructions labeled all over the thing on how to use it.

Today I had this woman with a strong Spanish accent come in and need faxing done. Normally, when I have nothing else going on, I say, "Sure, step right on over to the fax machine and I'll walk you through it." I'm all about teaching a man to fish so he can feed himself for a lifetime.

The woman then proceeds to tell me she doesn't have her glasses and can't read the fax number. Then - as if to mock me - she says, "That's the number. 484..." I almost asked, "I thought you didn't have you glasses and couldn't read the number?"

It's as if she wanted to say, "I'd rather remain ignorant, so why don't you do it for me?" but she didn't have the courage to just call herself what she was - lazy.

The worst example of this though was a woman about a month back that came in and set her brand new phone down on the counter and said, "I need to email a document I have on here to you." I proceeded to tell her how to do it. She shook her head and waved her hand, saying, "No, you need to do it. I don't know how to work that thing. Anyway, whenever I come in here, they do it for me, so just do it for me." She spent the rest of the time yapping to her friend about what she may or may not want for lunch.

I literally want to scream at these people. They have no clue how good they've got it. Worse though are those that know precisely how spoiled they are, and they revel in it. I get it. We live in an incredibly awesome time. Technology is fascinating and can do just about anything. In my direct area, homelessness and poverty are pretty non-existent (aside from struggling college students). Aside from the occasional shooting, crime is minimal in my hometown.

None of this excuses laziness and selfishness.

One of my friends from school and I used to occasionally remind one another of how good we had it. She was thankful for indoor plumbing and I was always thankful for the fact that I could walk up to a refrigerator and suddenly have something to quiet my rumbling stomach. We did this to remember that we aren't dying. In fact, we're flourishing. We live in a country that (for the time being), is for the free. A good chunk of our society has it so good, they don't know what a real depression would be.

I've been lucky enough to not only have parents who refuse to let me be ignorant, but to have driven all over this country and seen with my own eyes the devastation of poverty. I've seen houses that look about ready to cave in. I've seen homeless individuals huddled on street corners, begging for something to eat. I've offered lunch to the hungry in New York City. I've repaired houses for those suffering from hurricanes. And I've listened to them in these moments and every time, I've thanked God for what He's given me.

Don't be ignorant and don't be lazy. Take control of what you can. Feed yourself, don't just steal someone else's time and energy. Give more than you take. Offer what you have and then double it. I understand. That's a hard bill to swallow.

Swallow it anyway.

Currently Editing: Genesis
Currently Listening to: Ludovico Einaudi's "Divenere"

Wrong or Right?

Y'know what baffles me? This isn't like a silly little thing. It literally confuses me until my brain starts to throb from non-understanding.

I'll explain myself with a story. Today our self-serve color machine decided to freeze. Legit. Out of nowhere it suddenly became non-responsive  The menu would pop up, but beyond that, it would just sit there and beep at you. No error messages. No warning. Just random inefficiency.

So about an hour before I had the time to call our helpdesk, I had this customer ask for hep with it, 'cause you know, it wasn't working. I went over with a fellow coworker to help try to remedy the situation. When we discovered it wasn't responding to anything (even a hard shutdown and reboot), we offered to make the copies for the customer behind the counter.

Now, before I continue, let me explain this customer. He was an older, squat gentleman. If you saw him on the street, you'd think, "Aw, he looks like a nice old man. Probably very respectable and conservative." You'd never guess he was carrying around a book of nude women and planned to copy them in a very public place. Not kidding in the slightest.

As he tried to discretely hide the front cover (and failed miserably), he said in an abrupt sort of way, "No thanks." He tucked the book under his arm, facing the cover toward himself, and we apologized to him as he gruffly muttered something before he walked briskly out of the building.

Here's what confuses me.

If it's so okay for someone to be into porn or sex or any sort of sin, then why do we struggle so hard to hide it? I'm positing a question I really want an explanation for. So often we're told to be "tolerant" of others and their choices. To accept them and be gracious in understanding and respecting their actions. To allow that our culture has grown "freer" - or a worse description - "more accepting" to a growing (de)sensitizing culture. We're supposed to be okay with the fact that PG-13 rated movies show sex scenes while R rated films garner full on NC-17 material. We're supposed to be okay with homosexuality. We're supposed to be okay with abortion. Because "that's what our culture has matured to."

Then why do we hide it?

Why do we so shamelessly tuck something away that's supposed to be okay? That's supposed to be accepted? Why do we feel the need to not let others - strangers or otherwise - to know about our obsession? Why keep secrets if what we keep secret is viewed as a-okay?

Just going out on a limb here, but could it be because it's wrong?