Violence in Aisle 5.....

I have been sort of haphazardly researching "peace" for the past few weeks. Pondering the way peace might fit into the grand scheme of things and how peace might fit into my own little corner of the world.  In a way, Google has set the pace by coming up with an eclectic mix of results gleaned from various search queries relating to peace.  The focus has been both far reaching, as in global, and up close and personal, as in our homes and our interactions with our families, at work with our coworkers...even at the grocery store.  I use the grocery store as a specific example because I found myself at the grocery store on December 24th at about 1:30....along with the rest of the population of Williamsport!! Only an idiot goes to the grocery store on the afternoon of Christmas Eve.

My intention was to get there early to buy some last minute things for Christmas brunch.  An overnight ice storm changed those plans.  At 7 am everything was covered with ice.  It was really nasty out so I postponed my trip.  So did everyone else. 

The store was a zoo.  There were carts and people everywhere...loitering (or so it seemed) in the aisles blocking the flow of traffic.  People going this way and that way.  Some were scurrying at breakneck speed.  Others were moving painstakingly slow.  Others were actually stopping to chat in the aisles.  Oh, come on now, get a move on.  It was amidst that confusion and congestion that the lady behind me clipped the back of my ankle  with her grocery cart...pulling  off my shoe!!  My reaction was not peaceful.  I was quite annoyed and appropriately sucked my teeth and shook my head. 

"Oh, did I hit you?" she asked in a matter of fact, I really don't give a crap way.  I didn't reply...didn't even look back at her.  Just continued on my mission to get to the next item on my list....shaking my head, sighling deeply  She, and all the other shoppers there yesterday, were simply an annoyance to me. I looked at all of them as adversaries.

It occurs to me that I often do that in the grocery store.  My attitude is sort of, "get the hell out of my way and let me get this over with." Like why I'm there is more important than why they are there, my time is more valuable than theirs and that they simply owe me the courtesy of clearing the way as I head down the aisles.  Sort of road rage with a grocery cart :) 

So where does all this come from, I wonder?  From my ever constant preoccupation with time passing too quickly and my ever present awareness of all I want to accomplish? Not dwelling in the now for sure.  Not a peaceful (or practical) way to live either.  Peace on earth, goodwill to men?  How about just a little peace at Wegmans'? 

I came upon a quote in my Christmas Day web journeys...

If we can't put an end to the violence within us, there is no hope for putting an end to the violence without."

Here's a thought...perhaps world peace starts in places as mundane and ordinary as the grocery store? Sort of like leaven?

“The kingdom of heaven is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal till it was all leavened.”