Today I was at Sears to have my car serviced. While waiting in line, I thought of all the lessons we can learn from this everyday simple action (or maybe I should say inaction). First of all, it can teach us the necessity of patience. Some things require time to complete, just get used to it. It teaches us basic fairness; the person ahead of us got there first, so we must understand that it is fair that we wait. The underlying understanding here is that we are equal to others, not above or more important than they are. In a sense, they are more equal than us since they got in line first. If we should ever contemplate butting in line, we can’t help but consider what those behind would be thinking and feeling. Thus in addition to the other lessons, we learn to put ourselves in others’ places. It is a lesson in empathy. This ubiquitous school and these lessons taught are so common and frequent that we can miss the tremendous democratic reinforcement repeatedly and practically experienced in daily life.
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