I have to share this supermarket visit. Sometimes it's easy to get into the "Oh woe is us, everybody's a jerk and life is so haaaarrrrdd..." mentality that is so prevalent. So tonight I went to the supermarket near my house and saw people being people.

A man pulled into the handicapped spot near the entrance and very slowly emerged from his vehicle. He was alone, his color was bad, and I was worried about him and about to say something but didn't have to. I was walking in from a spot in the next zip code (the store is popular and was packed) and was about to ask if I could help him when one of the senior citizen "bag boys" got there first and asked if he could get him a motorized cart. The man accepted gratefully. So Bag Boy and I went into the store at the same time, to find another man in his 60s, a customer who saw this guy too, already in a motorized cart, ready to drive it out to the man waiting by his vehicle. Three of us were ready to respond when only three of us saw him. Not a bad reflection of the human condition.

A few minutes later two scrungy pierced tough looking teenagers passed by and someone sneezed, and the scrungy teenagers instantly said "Bless you!" - the sneezer responded in surprise, "Thank you!" I walked up the aisle smiling - somebody raised those boys right, piercings and wardrobe nothwithstanding. They are aware and polite and nice young men, and they will be fine.

People are good. They really are. Don't let the fearmongerers get you down.