Cognizant of the world's many real plagues, it would behoove me to get over the first-world personal plagues that trip me up every day, but for reasons unknown, I find it increasingly difficult to accept:
- Subway riders who don't remove their backpacks and purses.
- People who don't return phone calls or respond to email messages.
- Stop-in-their-tracks texters.
- Know-it-all millennials.
- Rudeness, from people of any age.
- Lack of downtime hours -- for unwinding, reading, writing, watching television, napping, doodling, and the like.
- Bullies -- on the playground, in the office, or at the other end of the phone.
- Liars.
- Interrupters.
- Lack of respect for deadlines and its effect on others.
- Incompetence, especially among supposed customer service professionals.
- Looking out only for #1.
- Incorrect grammar, lack of capitalization, and abbreviations, especially in texts.
- Idle chatter, particularly personal conversations in public places.
- Manspread.
- Obliviousness about one's surroundings, which can result in unintended rudeness.
Inspired by Ima on (and off) the Bima, this post is one in a series marking the days of the Jewish month of Nisan leading up to Passover, which begins at sundown on Friday, April 22, corresponding to 15 Nisan. If you want to play along, check out this year's #BlogExodus and #ExodusGram prompts. Once again, this series of posts also is priming my heart, mind, and spirit to participate in Beyond Walls: Spiritual Writing at Kenyon, a six-day summer writing seminar that is an initiative of the Kenyon Institute at Kenyon College in Gambier, OH.
