Newspaper
Every morning, a newspaper will be delivered, usually the person delivering the paper will throw it in such a way that it will land exactly under my car tires parked in my driveway, making it hard to pick up. On lucky days, the paper will land a little away from car tires and it will be easier to pick up. When I take the car reverse from the driveway, maneuvering in such a way as to miss the newspaper is a skill I recently developed.
I have subscribed to WSJ and I try to read as often as possible even if it’s old. One time I was reading a three weeks old paper and my wife was making fun of me for I always lagging behind the latest happenings. She is the opposite of me, she will know up to the minute details of the latest events.
One such morning, on a beautiful spring day with clear blue skies, sunshine, and perfect walking weather, a newspaper got delivered and it landed behind one of my cars in such a way its visible and easy to pick up. That day I was working from home, and from the second-floor home office window I could see my driveways. As usual, I joined my regular calls on Microsoft Teams and started watching outside while listening to my team members. Around 10:30 am, an SUV pulled in front of my house slowly. First I thought someone missed the address, and trying to figure out the correct house. Or I thought, someone trying to park the car and go to the park in front of my house.
A gentleman, a senior citizen, got down from the car and slowly walked towards my driveway picked up the newspaper, and went towards his car. I was watching the whole thing from my office window while I was attending my usual status meetings. All of a sudden, I could not pay attention to my meetings. Most of my mind went to analyzing what just happened and started giving me all the worst possibilities. So many questions going on in my mind.
Does he think the newspaper is free? How come he can pick it up and put it in his car? I’m paying a monthly subscription for this newspaper and whether I read it or not, it belongs to me. How can he do that in front of my eyes?
My heart and mind both started racing. My emotions were mixed with surprise and anger.
So I did not say anything to my team members in the meeting, I put myself on mute and ran fast and came down to catch him before he left in his car. I opened the main door and went outside to the porch. To my surprise, the car is still standing right where he parked. The gentleman slowly picked up a grocery bag from his car and came towards me. I greeted him with a hello and he responded with hi.
As soon as I saw the grocery bag I knew this must be the InstaCart driver delivering groceries. Suddenly I realized, that morning my wife ordered groceries from InstaCart. My mind felt a little bit calm but still did not know what happened to the newspaper.
As he delivered the first grocery bag to me, I received it and thanked him. Slowly I said, “I need the newspaper”. For that, he looked at me and replied, “It's in the bag”. I looked in the bag and there it was, right on top of it.
With an embarrassing smile, I said “Thank you so much”. With so many awkward emotions gushing in my mind I went towards the main door with my head down, he said “Wait for one more bag”. Those were some of the most difficult 30-second waits I had to do. Received the second bag and said one more time “Thank you so much”, instead of Sorry for judging you so quickly.
After returning to my home office, I could not go back to my normal work meetings. I had to take a 10-minute break to think through what just happened. Now with so many mixed emotions, I started to question myself — Why did I judge that Gentlemen so quickly? Why do I always assume the worst? He went out of the way to pick up the newspaper and put it in the grocery bag to avoid extra work for me. Seriously, who does that in these days? I felt so embarrassed.
Judging is an innate human trait and we all judge others around us constantly. This experience has taught me how fast I can judge people without knowing the full context.
That newspaper was tossed into the existing pile of all unread newspapers.