Project Homeless Connect is over and soon I will compile some interviews to share with you. However, before I get started on that assignment, I wanted to share something with you. Actually, it's a question regarding our different perspectives on life and I owe it all to Dairy Queen.
Recently I was standing in line, patiently awaiting my turn to order. The particular location was not too busy and everyone, customers and employees, seemed happy and content with the world. There was only one person ahead of me and I was in the last throes of deciding what I wanted when the person ordering caught my attention. What happened was nothing earth-shattering or even anything remotely out of place. It was something I'd heard a thousand times but, for whatever reason, had never truly paid attention to until this moment. The person ordered, but it what what he said that got my (overactive) wheels spinning:
"Give me a ... " and he finished his selection. He was not mean or rude and nothing about him carried any appearance of unpleasantness. It was simply what he said that struck a chord. When I order things, I usually say, "May I have a ..." It dawned on me that people might fall into two (with some variances, of course) categories. There are those who expect things and there are those who request things.
I suppose there are countless influences on a person that shape this perspective. Age, economics, sex, beliefs, race, geography... The list could go on forever. And I'm not advocating one position as right and the other wrong; they're just different. Some people are given to make demands while others forge inquiries. It is really a very interesting phenomenon to just relax and listen to others talk. If you pay close enough attention, you can make some initial observations simply from listening.
After ordering and leaving the restaurant, I spent some time wondering whether or not people can change their default-settings. Just because I ask for something in one environment doesn't mean I won't expect things in a different scenario. We are complex and multilayered creatures, after all.
So, thanks to DQ for giving me pause to reflect a little on who I am.
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