Ralf Weiser's Blog – Shake Up Your Snow Globe! ©

The counter intuitive thing about Christmas

The counter intuitive thing about Christmas

“I want my pizza now!” went the rather disenchanted lady last night at the restaurant located within an indoor water park in the PA Pocono Mountains. The poor food worker behind the buffet style food counter apologized. Then he offered the plausible explanation that the pizza had just been put into the warm up oven and was just not ready yet. It was to no avail. The woman continued to be furious – she was “owed” a hot and tasty pizza.

Christmas is not even two weeks old and the sense of entitlement was rampant at and around this place. What happened to empathy and compassion for our fellow people? This is THE holiday season that is supposed to be filled with love and thoughtfulness. It was out the door at this place. It ranged from grumpy folks like the woman above and also people at the check in counter, folks behaving like outright pigs in the water park, to even the car parking lot. Entitlement was in the air no matter where I went and looked. Wow, this was the opposite of what I expected – especially during the Christmas season!

Folks, we are not entitled to anything. We do not deserve anything. We earn both. We do not pursue money and success. We attract both by the person whom we have become. As for Christmas, that is not a season where we behave nicely once a year. We behave nicely 24/7/365 and not only when it benefits us. Most important of all, we can choose our response to the things that happen to us. Let’s resolve to making better choices.

What is your worst example of entitlement this season? What was your best example of someone behaving season like?

Ralf