Disrespecting the parking lot

By Samantha Jones
(posted by Rick Morris)

In any given day, there are a number of times that one is expected to abide by certain unwritten rules of etiquette. Whether it be participating in a conference call, a meeting with your superiors at work, pushing a grocery cart, or any number of things … when people abide by these unwritten rules, the world keeps moving along just fine. It only takes one @$$pipe to screw the whole thing up.

It seems that these violators of the natural order of things should be few and far between -- however, in actuality, they are there almost as often as the considerate part of the population. It all comes down to one concept: do you think that you are more important than the next person just because you are whoever you are?

You've seen this person, and you've probably seen him or her way too often. They are too important to follow these rules because they are above the rules. They are running late, and the rules don't apply. Or they have better things to do than to follow the rules.

The crux of this rant applies to parking lots. Let’s assume that you are looking for a spot in a Wal-Mart parking lot. The lanes serpentine towards and away from the storefront. The people I am referring to are the ones that are too important to drive to the end of the lane and turn into the next one. For them, it is much more convenient to cut across parking spaces, thus getting into the next lane without wasting the 7.3 seconds it would've taken to do it correctly. And the beauty of their pure arrogance is that they don't care if you have to slam on your breaks and give your significant other severe whiplash just so they didn't have to waste any of their precious time. And why? Because they are more important than you; their time is more valuable than yours.

Then there are the SuperPricks, the ones who not only do this, but are so arrogant and egocentric that they feel the need to add excessive speed to the equation. Just imagine: you are moving along looking right and left at a comfortable crawl while this jerk a mere eight feet from you crosses over spaces you might intend on turning into at a brisk 30 MPH. On the highway, 30 MPH is as slow as dirt; in a parking lot, it is redlining. I bet they'd act different if I took their sweet little Lexus fender and put in their back seat! And why? Because whether we want to believe it or not, people are jerks.

When you are familiar with an individual person, often they are nice and have redeeming value. When they are strangers in a stranger’s environment, then they are mindless inconsiderate jerks. Because they are more important than you...no matter what they do, who they are, or no matter who you are or what you do. When it’s not familiar, people are inconsiderate jerks.