Things You Can't Be Bothered With Anymore
Parking, QR Codes, Office Politics, Air Travel, Shopping, and more...
I stumbled across an online list of things that older people have decided they don’t want to deal with anymore.
As you’d expect, it is a list of what can only be considered first-world problems. Inconveniences they can no longer tolerate or be bothered with, like chatty aisle blockers in the grocery store or the lack of parking garages or lots leading to forced on-street parking.
I get why those might be bothersome.
The lack of aisle etiquette in most businesses where a shopping cart is a necessary accessory is frustrating. People who stop to browse or select something off the shelf should keep their “carriage” parallel to the products and as close as is reasonable to their “side” of the aisle.
Having to get around those stopping to chat up an acquaintance is no less frustrating. A polite “excuse-me” should address either obstruction without instigating the supermarket equivalent of a road rage incident. Still, I find it much more effective to include myself in their conversation without saying anything.
Look at each as they speak with interest, nod your head, smile, and laugh if it's appropriate. If they stop and look at your “intrusion,” smile and then try to interject something relevant. Pretend you know of whom or what they speak. Or say something with no context, like, wow, look at all these people behind me trying to do their grocery shopping.
Be nice.
Nearly total strangers who’ve stopped in opposite directions in the aisle but have left no room between them for “through traffic” are equally aggravating, more so when they act like they don’t see you waiting for someone to move.
It’s okay to park your cart a few feet along and walk back to where the thing is that you are looking to buy. I do it all the time.
Home Improvement stores are worse.
I’m not saying I’ve had it with any of that, but someone has. And I like online shopping, but not for groceries or clothing. Some things require your presence and patience to prevent others you might no longer want to put up with, like serially returning what does not fit or is different in person than as presented online.
Amazon has made Returns about as easy as it can, but I bet a lot of people no longer have time for that either, which is probably what the retailers with the convoluted return process are hoping (maybe they’ll keep it).
Street Parking? It’s enough to make you want to stay home.
We’ve been spending more time along the New Hampshire seacoast. Portsmouth has a great live music scene and lots of restaurants and bars. Good food and entertainment but parking SUCKS! So, I get it, but like all things that comes with the experience. If that’s what you want, it is what you get. You have to own it upfront, but many cities, even the tiny ones in my state, have this issue. Larger (especially older) cities are exponentially worse, and garage parking is akin to volunteering to be robbed (by the rates and possibly the locals).
What Else?
The list included waiting in lines, new music, dealing with online or telephone customer service, office politics, air travel, QR codes, and other people’s drama—all first-world problems.
Not answering phone numbers you don’t recognize also made the list. I remember when you didn’t have a choice, but we weren’t getting robo or political calls, pollsters, marketers, and the rest of it. If your phone rang, it was probably someone with whom you wanted to speak or a wrong number, and you still might end up talking to them. I honestly can’t say I have much interest in the phone as a phone. My smartphone is a digital assistant that tells the internet what sort of emails and ads to throw in my face every time I go online.
I'm not sure why I get emails about the Camp Lejune lawsuit. I was never in the Marines.
I could say I’m not a fan of other people’s dramas, but as a political blogger, that’d be a fat lie. Drama is content. In many cases, it is a lede on some storytelling or leads to some story. But there is a lot of unnecessary drama. First-world problems elevated to life-altering encounters. When my kids were younger, my response to that sort of thing was to suck it up. Whatever it was, the odds were good that in 100 years, no one would care or, more accurately, in fewer than 100 minutes, maybe seconds. Life can feel long, but it's rather short, and as the list attests, it shouldn’t take long for you to work out what is not worth the time.
I don’t have time to spend worrying, for example, overthinking (sorry, ladies) and getting mad about trivial or inconsequential things (like people blocking the aisle with shopping carts).
I’m not interested in letting what other people do or say (consciously or not) control how I’m going to feel (with a few important exceptions).
I’ve not given up caring or become disinterested. These are not the same thing, and it is a distinction with a difference. The politicization of everything, for example, leads to much conflict and debate, but I’ve learned to look at and remark about things without internalizing that energy. I read and listen to people even if I don’t think I agree with them. I wasn’t always like that, but I got here from there, and that's a good thing. The world is working overtime to stress people out.
Profiting from the mutilation of children - under the pretense that you are doing them a favor - is a grotesque cultural abomination. Still, I’m not fretting or carrying it as a burden. I write about how wrong it is, but I don’t lose sleep over it. Likewise, the surveillance state or the war on free speech are serious threats that will affect human liberty and could put my business income (what of it there is) and physical liberty in jeopardy, but I’m not restless with concern.
So maybe the thing I can’t be bothered with anymore is listing things with which I can’t be bothered, but I can be bothered to write about them.