a description of the amazing and exciting adventures i have here in baltimore--- and other lies.

 
The course of this morning gave me great pause, and the questions posed while living it still remain unanswered. As I walked into the video store, the employees were unpacking movie posters for Lord of the Rings. Not the cheap ones, the kind they make for a penny yet for which charge $15, and you still have to mount them, but the real posters sent to the theaters. They had scored quite a few, as part of a promotion which they are joining with the City paper to raffle off tickets to the movie. I got my flicks, and the manager asked me if I would like a poster or two. They ended up giving me five. Why this bounty? Because, according to K., the manager, "this gentleman is one of the only consistantly nice customers we have."

What gave me to wonder is, I don't think myself exceptional. I walk in Video Americain, I make chit-chat, I give correct change when I can, I say please and thank you. I even wait my turn patiently. In other words, I donot do anything I would consider extraordinary; indeed, I am only being simply courteous and polite. But, I am afraid, politesse is a lost art these days.

I thanked them, and went home. One of the videos I rented is Bruce Almighty, which is worth a watch. Indeed, while watching it, I became rather guilty. One of the messages of the film, missed by all the evangelical types, is that it is not easy being God. Especially when dealing with us humans. Bruce initially does right only by himself, which, if you watch carefully, causes havok in other peoples' lives. He learns in the end how difficult a job it is to be omnipotent, but handcuffed by we people having free will. Finally, we learn, what have you done for anyone lately.

Now, this is where it gets tricky: having been rewarded for simply being nice, and then being asked, "what have you done lately to deserve any munificence?"( the answer being, of course, "not much."),
leads me to wonder how being nice can be enough?

It can't be that. Can the simple fact that we smile at a stranger, or make a person we don't know laugh, or even not make someone we do know cry make us worhty of any bounty, either on the temporal or
spiritual plane? And, why do I feel so guilty? Maybe this latter is the real question.
posted by gregorio at 9:38 PM