I had stopped at a Whole Foods Market to get a cup of coffee as I didn't have time to make one since I had to leave early to navigate the morning rush hour traffic in Boston. I had just enough time as I had to be at my mom's residence by 9am. I wanted to be there when she went to see her primary care doctor.
I thought that paying for the coffee would only take a matter of seconds at the most minutes but I soon found that the express (10 items or less) check out line was not open yet. I chose what appeared to be the shortest of the three available lines. In front of me was a rather harried looking middle age guy dressed like he was working on a construction job. I could see that he had purchased a bouquet of flowers and was in the process of paying them. I was pleasantly distracted by the cashier to my right who was calling me over to ring my purchase up. As I turned to go to the next line I was cut off by a man in a business suit who also was carrying a bunch of flowers.I made eye contact with the benevolent cashier who shrugged her shoulders with a look that seemed to say, "oh well, I tried." I retraced my few steps to go back in the original line thinking that the transaction would have been completed. The man was still there trying to juggle a cell phone on his shoulder while attempting to sign the automated device where one swipes a credit/debit card.
As usual, I made the wrong choice - I should have stayed in the line to my right but now I was stuck there because the other lines had more people queued up. The cashier was instructing the man where he had to sign when I overheard the conversation he was having. It sounded as if he was talking to someone that was at the job site where he was working and after giving some instructions he said, "I'm at the store, I have to buy some flowers for my wife."
I had to bite my tongue. I wanted to stop him and tell him that he didn't have to buy flowers for his wife. As he left the woman cashier looked at me and smiled and commented about my plight of trying to go to another line and then coming back and having to wait even longer. She said, "that always happens." Then she mentioned how today she will see many others who at the last minute rush in having to buy something for their 'sweethearts.' I started to wonder about whether many of these people would ever think about buying something for their sweethearts if there was no Valentine's Day. It brought to mind the story I heard a secretary to a rather well known National company's CEO told of how her boss asked her to go and buy a Valentine's Day card to give to his wife.
I often wonder if these women realize that their sweethearts are only doing something nice because it's required, expected or predicated by a certain day.
If you truly love and care for someone you don't wait for an Anniversary, or Birthday etc. to show your love by doing something special. This is the day I feel bad for a lot of guys because they are forced to do something nice or out of the ordinary.Why is it that women aren't under the same pressure as men today?
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