(the “WRITE ON” series is just a way to keep me writing and updating this blog. Most of these “WRITE ON” posts won’t have any depth– it’s just writing for the sake of writing, so I don’t forget how to write. I’ll guarantee you that there will be grammatical errors. Thank you for indulging me.)

Someone once told me you can assess the character of a person by the way they treat people they don’t need.

The cousin to that advice is, “pay attention to how your date treats the servers at the restaurant.”

There have been plethora of stories coming out where people who work at grocery stores, retail stores, restaurants, bars, coffee shops, etc are ignored as human beings.

One barista recounts that a lady came into the store without a mask and she was told that wearing a mask was required and she responded, “Why, there’s no one else here but me?” completely discounting that wearing the mask is also to help protect the baristas.

Or this meme that’s been floating around:

Again. That plexiglass is there to also protect the cashier.

Sometimes it’s hard to forget that there are other people living in our universe.

I’ll add two more adages along with the “you can assess someone’s character by how they treat people they don’t need” that’s handy for life in general, but particularly crucial during this season:

don’t be a jerk.
and
don’t be stupid, stupid.