Show some consideration

Everyone’s encountered a self-centered person who, even in a public arena, acts like they run the place. I understand that everyone has his or her inconsiderate moments — I’ve certainly had mine — but when an individual exhibits three or more instances of flippant behavior, I feel safe drawing conclusions about that person’s character traits.
The other day I was at a meeting that quickly became a standing-room-only affair. I stood beside the open door to the room, and a woman holding a child was sitting in a chair near the door.
At one point during the two-hour meeting, I briefly removed the contents of my left pocket. Upon seeing these items, the woman requested a piece of gum. Actually, she didn’t really ask me. In fact, her words were: “Gimme a piece of gum.”
I try to be a nice person sometimes, so I obliged.
Later, I felt something tap against my foot. I looked down to see a pacifier resting next to my shoe. I tried to ignore it, but foolishly made brief eye contact with the woman holding the child. Her facial expression seemed to say, “Well ain’t you gonna pick it up?”
Again, being nice this time for the poor baby’s sake, i picked up the pacifier by the ring on the side that hadn’t (I hoped) been in the child’s mouth — just making sure to avoid any saliva.
The third impolite instance didn’t affect me. It was worse than the other two, however, because of the elderly woman it affected.
The older woman, who was using a walker, was trying to get through the doorway and leave the meeting. But alas, ample space did not exist between the threshold and the chair of the woman holding the baby, and that woman wasn’t getting out of her seat. So the elderly woman collapsed her walker and braced herself against the doorjamb as the town fire chief helped her through the doorway.
That was almost too much for me to stand. I understand the woman was holding a baby boy, but it wouldn’t have hurt the infant if the woman had stood up carefully to let the elderly woman through. It might hurt the child in the long run, however, for him to witness such a bad example as he grows older.

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