Human Civility

This is a giant warehouse of a supermarket
not at all to our choice of weekly shopping
expeditions. Huge, its focus on comestibles
but fashioning itself as a purveyor of all
types of goods, not merely edible perishables
but kitchenware, clothing, toiletries and
bedding linens. Its inventory huge and
distracting from the need to shop for the
pantry. For us, hard goods need not apply and
we tend to avoid such places, but yet find
ourselves in one such emporium despite
the principle of adversity to marketing ploys.
We are there, seeking out a simple target of
a sole whole food product, surrounded by
humanity careless of their expenditures and
offerings excessive to any living body's
nutritional health needs, no one observing
the presence of others, no faces turned toward
other faces, no eyes meeting, no tongues
exchanging as though everyone lives in a
discrete world of their own. As we wait to
be checked out my husband remarks on the
paucity of cashiers to handle the volume of
trade and a woman directly in front turns and
with some heat adds to his observation from
her own experience. When she soon attempts
to shrug into her winter coat and cannot a
hand reaches out to guide her into the sleeves
and my pride in his courtesy knows no bounds.