Covid-19 Lockdown: Day 10
The meaning of obedience is complying to an order or submitting to authority. We are called to stay indoors. But why is there so many of us around?
When I got home from work I decided to go to the shops to buy a few perishables for the week. Walking with quiet confidence in my velvet green dress, my knee-high heels clapping with each step , I slipped into the store with purpose only to be redirected back out by a guard. There was a line apparently. No one was there but I still had to wait outside until I was given permission to enter. Oopsie!
Once I got in the store I grabbed what I needed quickly and at the till asked my cashier how she was feeling and if her day was going well. “No,” she replied. “I’m constantly asked:
Why don’t you have a mask?
Have you sanitized?
Where you do live?
Where’s your gloves?
Why aren’t you wiping my products?
Don’t touch my groceries, do you even know what’s going on?”
“It’s like people hate us,” she stuttered. “People think we started the corona.”
I couldn’t help but feel sad and I wished in that moment that I could’ve given her a hug. Instead I looked into her watery eyes and said, ‘I think you’re fabulous. And brave. Thank you for serving me and I really appreciate you for being here.” I walked away and past so many shoppers with rando crap in their trolleys. Anger was setting in and before the expression on my face started to mimic the insides of my heart I picked up the pace to the car. My heels no longer clapped in productive victory but they were smacking the tiles in disgust.
Has compassion been replaced by fearful bullies? I went to the store because I needed something. I needed for the cashiers to be there. They don’t need to be there. But they are there because they have no choice. No work means no pay for essential workers.
Let us not forget to be kind and thankful for the many cashiers who wake up, dress their best and put their lives at risk to serve us - the privileged. Cashiers don’t get paid tens of thousands of rands. They don’t have balconies like I do to run around. Hell, they don’t even have the luxury of saying, “I’m bored.”
No. They are working. And many are digesting the negativity of bullies who probably are in the stores not for essential items but just because they need an escape from the inside of their own homes or from the people they’re living with.
Let us strive to be better. To be complimentary and kind. We are all in lockdown together and there is no better time than now to get to know your cashiers and car guards by name.
If you go out today, I challenge you, type the full name of your cashier in the comment section of this post. Either on my blog or on Facebook or Instagram. Let’s celebrate them.
