A couple of days ago whilst out driving my bus on a circular route of a local town, in fact I do the same trip around the town 8 times in one day!
The challenge with this is to run the route to it's schedule, now the times that are given I reckon were worked out and driven in the middle of the night with not one badly parked vehicle slowing you down, no traffic to contend with and not having to pick up a single passenger.
In other words they are near on impossible, without a good deal of luck!
So imagine my surprise when I was on my 4th or 5th trip around and running on time and I stop to pick up an elderly lady who then complains that I was on time!
Yes, running on time! She went on to tell me that as the service is usually always a couple of minutes late she always leaves the house a few minutes later so she doesn't have to stand around waiting! I had made her dash for the bus!
All I could say was "sorry for being on time"!
But us Brit's are great at complaining at trivial things and I do include myself in this, but the larger things tend to get brushed aside or not worried about.
Somewhere along the line we have lost a grip on perspective.
When there is local outcry that cycle lanes have been painted on a stretch of road with no consultation, what is there to consult about? Its white paint on a road!
Yet, no one complains that fuel and food prices are currently increasing at an alarming rate! Yes, we make reference to it, but there is no action taken, unlike the cycle lane haters who have taken a real dislike to the paint and it has made the local papers!
I have no idea what the answer is, I don't even think there is one, we are that much in the shite that no amount of complaining, flag waving and shouting will get us anywhere. This is probably why we are content to complain about the little things, these things can be challenged and you get an apology.
Mind you it sure is a funny old world when you have to apologise for doing something correct.
Till later.............
Nothing better than a good old rant.
ReplyDeleteI think people complain about little things when they are really upset about bigger things--transference. So you are the target for something else.
ReplyDeleteI complain bitterly about one thing and one thing only the weather. There is nothing at all we can do about the coldest spring/early summer I have ever known in my lifetime (temperatures here hover around 8 degrees every day) and yet I go on and on about it as if I should some how get my money back, as if there is some kind of minister of weather who is currently robbing me of warmth and sunshine and should be sacked .....crazy!
ReplyDeleteOne word in that stood out as hitting the nail on the head:
ReplyDeletePERSPECTIVE!
Sadly, for many people this is rather skewed. Maybe because their perspective is purely all about them and their little world, and not the bigger picture of the world around them?