I went out to dinner last night, grabbing a bite to eat near my current speaking site. As I pulled into the parking lot, I couldn’t believe what I saw. While there appeared to be many spaces, a lot of them could not actually be used simply because so many drivers had parked on the limit lines.
Since I couldn’t monitor the lot, I truly have no idea if the poor parking was the result of a domino effect–one driver parking so badly forcing others to park badly as well–or if the drivers in this area just lack proper parking skills.
Parking on or outside the lines is one of my pet peeves. While I do agree that a few parking spaces are made unreasonably small, this wasn’t the case for this lot. In my mind, parking on the line just indicates a lack of consideration for those around you. It takes a moment to repark a car. I know I often park poorly at first (I don’t always adjust to my rental car), but I always try to re-center the car. I figure people need space to get their car into a spot. If I take up more than my space, I may prevent others from parking.
But I think that there are a lot of people in our world who don’t think this way. Sure, I might be making this parking issue a bit too big, but I fear what it means on a larger scale. If we don’t realize that our actions affect others, I worry what happens.
If we shop at stores with the lowest prices, but don’t consider the fact that the workers at that store don’t receive a fair wage…
If we purchase food and perpetuate food policies, but don’t think about impact that those policies make on our farms and our health…
If we embrace habits, but don’t consider the impact those habits have on our environment…
If we “joke” and “tease” our friends, but don’t consider the impact of that “joking”…
It takes less than 10 seconds to repark a car. If we can’t do the simple thing, can we ever do the more important actions?
I hope the answer is yes, but I think it comes down to us changing out mindset and considering others.