Our recent trip to Clearwater right after Hurricane Helene flooded most of Florida’s Western shore highlighted the fragility of life there. The damage was mostly due to storm surge flooding, which devastated the barrier islands per a prior blog that just published. It was unimaginable damage brought about by floating debris acting as battering rams.
Staying at a hotel nearby overrun with people displaced from their homes brought an interesting portfolio of humanity. The free breakfast entourage at the hotel made it abundantly clear that people are not just trained to be efficient in their behaviors, especially when it comes to pouring their cup of morning coffee. To be fair, I have observed the same behavior at church during the morning coffee service Susan leads, affectionately called the Caffeine Ministry.
People stand in line, pour their cup of coffee and then take their sweet time doctoring their personal formula for sweetener and cream with total disregard for those standing right behind them waiting to get their coffee … which in many cases they will drink black. Since I am a black coffee drinker, I am more sensitive to this waiting step and want to say: please take your cup and move out of the way so people behind you can pour theirs. You are blocking traffic!
Ironically, I have observed the exact opposite behavior at the supermarket when I show up to check out with just a few items in my cart and the person in front of me has a full cart of groceries. In most cases, they see my handful of items, smile, and suggest I get in front of them, which I sometimes do, but in every case their concern for me is heartwarming. Maybe they think I am a feeble old man. Not sure I want to know the answer to that.
So, what is it that makes people insensitive in one case and the opposite in others? Is it that coffee is essential to breaking out of that early morning haze and people are just insensitive at that time of the day before their first cup? That would explain part of it. Or is there something different in perspective here about time itself? Not sure.
What does baffle me is that I have never, ever had a person who was concocting their perfect morning brew realize they were holding up traffic … ever … anywhere. You would think they would notice the people waiting behind them at some point and move aside. My wife Susan works carefully to put these additives to the morning brew alongside so that stepping aside can be easy, yet I have observed no one else to date doing that.
If any of you have any insights here, please email me. I am dumbfounded.
This is quite simple to understand: situational awareness. In the grocery line people are paying attention around them and will notice others. In the coffee line they are focused on the coffee only and not aware of those around them.
You can see this same thing on the highway as well as when piloting a light plane.
Hope you didn’t get impacted by the hurricane.