Today I was leaving the supermarket and a woman’s pack of strawberries fell out of her packed shopping cart, scattering strawberries all over the floor at the exit.
There were three other customers, a couple and a woman besides myself exiting and an employee of the supermarket right there.
The couple, who were right next to the woman, stepped over the strawberries and headed out of the exit. I, right behind the couple, bent down and started to help the woman pick up the berries. The employee looked down at the strawberries and walked off in the opposite direction without batting an eye. The other woman hesitated, looked to see if either I or the employee would help and walked away from the scene to exit at the further door.
As I helped the person pick up the strawberries, rather than just accept my help, they told me that they were ok and that they “got it”. I stopped helping because if she said no to help, then no means no.
In retrospect, in today’s environment of extreme political correctness and #metoo, I should have asked if she needed help in case I was accused of harassing her. Yes, that is where we are at as a society now. She thanked me. I went on my way. The entire interaction took less than thirty seconds.
Looking at that entire minute as a population slice:
16.66% of the population needed help but hesitated to accept it when it was offered because of embarrassment, pride and vulnerability.
50% of the population thought that their time was too precious to stop for less than a minute to assist another human being in need and left without hesitation or figured someone else was handling it.
16.66% of the population thought that it wasn’t their job and was not paid enough to help.
16.66% of the population actually stopped and helped without hesitation.
Yep. Looks about right. Sad.
Life As An Anomaly 
Clean up on isle four!
Well, at least you did the right thing by offering to help.
We do live in a very privileged, sad world.
I try not to let it affect me. It’s hard, but I try.
~GW
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Yep. Everyone is on guard
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It is sad to say that you are right, but you are. I think it is slightly easier as a woman to help without asking if help is needed. I remember a time I was at my local grocery store (grocery stores seem to be the perfect lab for human interaction experiments). There was a woman in an aisle, and somehow, she had her long shoe laces tangled in one of her cart’s wheels. She was sitting on the floor, crying and people just walked her by, pretending not to see her. She was probably just too nervous to untangle the laces… I kneeled beside her, and it took me less than a minute to ”free” her. It disappointed me to see that no one else had even tried to help before me. *sigh*
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We also live a world now where everyone is afraid to be accused to doing something wrong or being punished for doing a good deed.
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Exactly… How absurd, when you come to think about it. But that’s just how things are now. 😐
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Yep. Sad
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Good analysis. Things are metaphorically very similar on a larger scale, unfortunately. Too many were educated wrongly or just don’t care.
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Compassion is politically incorrect now i guess
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Yes… nuts, isn’t it?!
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Very accurate analysis.. I was waiting in the high street the other day for a friend and watching the comings and goings into a busy pharmacy… the same percentage seems to apply to holding a door open and showing courtesy.
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I think that social media, instead of bringing people together, has made people self centered islands, but that’s a whole other issue all together! Thanks for coming by.
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