Awareness and its absence.
Today while food shopping, I watched as someone got into position and blocked the doorway.
I'd only run in for a few things. Now, here I was among the rest of the people held up by the exit. This place has one of those vestibules that has an "in" door and an "out" door almost side by side to keep traffic flowing. Stuffing the receipt I didn't want into my pocket, I'd fallen into stride behind a couple other people from self-checkout who were headed to the door.
I knew it would happen. I saw the guy approaching from the other side of the glass. He was tall, wearing a black hoodie and sweats with running shoes on. He'd just walked in the first set of doors from the parking lot. When he began to turn toward the "in" door, he looked down, and we both saw it.
His shoe was untied.
Then, right there in the middle of the foot traffic, blocking both automatic doorways, he did the unthinkable... Without so much as a second glance, he bent down to tie his shoe. Bags dropped. Groceries spilled and began making their own break for the doors. The woman behind him almost ran him over. The people in front of me from self-checkout almost tripped over him and into her.
Suddenly, everything and everyone stopped. Then, not saying a word, the man got up and strolled away without ever looking back.
Our Daily MAP Year Prompt
131/365
When's the last time someone else's lack of awareness made you hyper aware of your own?
onward.
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