Today's lesson: humanity

I was at Starbucks this morning (I know...BIG surprise), purchasing my morning coffee. As I reached the line there were two people in front of me and the first was finishing up her order. In the 15 seconds it took me to walk to the line and pull my wallet out of my pocket six people fell into place behind me, including a few "regulars" I recognized. My brother works at this particular Starbucks, so the baristas know me and were pouring my coffee as I walked in. Several of the other people in line were [actual] coffee drinkers and the barista scrambled to get their orders ready ahead of time as well. As the coffees started piling up on the counter the first lady took back her card and began to walk away. The cashier said thank you and as she was about to help the next customer she glanced at the register and noticed there was a balance of 80 cents. The cashier kindly called to the previous customer and alerted her of the situation. The customer explained she'd have to go to her car to get the balance and walked out with an embarrassed look as the line came to a halt.

Let me break here and give you a bit of a sidebar. I know its not fair to "judge a book by its cover", and this is something I try to follow. The things that most people get caught up on like (skin color, tattoos, sexual orientation, etc) don't really cause me to prejudice myself. However, there are a few things that I still need to work on. If people have any of the following, they have basically start "in the hole" and have to prove me wrong:

• NASCAR stickers on their car (I know, I know, its a sport...)
• Ponytail on men over 40 (I think they look ridiculous on men period, but have a particularly hard time with the 40+ crowd)
• Bushy mustaches (men or women :) )

Back to my story...

As the women made it to the door, a man handed the cashier a dollar. It was one of the regulars, a retired man, probably 5'3, bright yellow nylon jumpsuit, long grey ponytail, and a bushy mustache. The cashier thought initially thought (as did I) the man was being rude and trying to sneak in payment for a newspaper. He quickly explained it was to cover the lady's balance. The line began moving again, and when the woman returned she was elated that someone had come to her assistance and promptly thanked the man.

I felt kind of bad. I saw this man everyday, and every time I saw him I rolled my eyes. Not anymore... now I just have to work on the NASCAR stickers.

SIDENOTE: As I was typing this, it began to feel like a cheesy email forward. If this was an email forward it seems like it would probably end with "...and the woman pulled a gun out of her purse and handed it to the man. She then explained with a tear in her eye, 'I was going to use this on myself later but your kindness has shown me humanity still has some good...'" :)