Evelina and I love Christmas.  This time of year we usually plan a lot of activities involving Christmas by visiting McAdenville (Google it), Christmas shopping in the hustle-n-bustle, tree lighting services, parades…you get the point.

This past week we visited the Christmas Village in downtown Charlotte to see the tree lighting and to shop the vendors for special gifts.  And of course I did my usual which is watch people and their behaviors.  I don’t know why I do this, but I simply cannot escape it.

There were a lot of people and the area for the village was packed, often times leaving little room if any to walk or maneuver from one vendor to another.  We spent much of our time saying “excuse me” or “I apologize” as we bumped our way through the crowd.  What surprised me (not really) was the fact that we did not get one single return courtesy from another person there and we were bumped into, run into, pushed past many times; too many to count actually.

It is no secret that I really don’t like crowds and maybe I am hypersensitive because of this fact, but I don’t think it should be okay to be discourteous.  At one point I positioned myself in an area away from the crowd so I could watch people to see how many apologized or excused themselves when they pushed their way through other people and not one time did anyone say anything.  One instance resulted in a lady having half of her hot chocolate spilled and the offender just kept on walking.

It is becoming evident to me that we’ve failed (or are failing).  I see this occurrence too often and it seems to be the norm in today’s world.  Every time I watch people’s behavior I feel myself becoming so negative.  I feel negative writing this post as a matter of fact.  But I don’t think this topic should be ignored simply because I don’t want to be negative.  It is my belief that the smart device and social media are behind this growing trend.

Society as a whole has become addicted to their devices and because of this addiction the world around us becomes invisible.  We forget that this thing around us is a live, breathing, actual place which depends on real, live interactions with real, live people.  It is not uncommon for a drug addict to steal from family, the same family that loves them.  The addict becomes so focused on his or her next fix that the only thing that matters is getting that fix and everyone else becomes irrelevant.

I tend to be a bit pessimistic and possibly a touch judgmental and I admit to being so.

But I still think we are failing.

Danny