People, as a species, suck.

I've been so disappointed by people lately.  I use that word as a deliberate and gross understatement.  We always joke about how much people on the whole, as a species, suck -- but the reality is that it's just true.  Countless times every day we get blatant reminders of what a rude, self-centered and generally noxious group of people comprises the large majority of society. I will be the first Pollyanna to mention that that is a total generalization but when you get pummeled a bit it gets a bit difficult to see breaks of light in between the punches. 

Are the concepts of things like courtesy, professionalism, responsibility and accountability so alien that they must be enforced rather than expected?  Is it that today those are obsolete terms and the bar can only be stepped over with effort, raising it off the floor causing everyone to just quit?

Someone who works with me on a side project and has been for the last seven years just stopped showing up about six weeks ago.  I do not know the circumstances which brought this about, life happens.  But two plus weeks of trying to contact him has been met with silence -- phone calls, emails, voice mail and not even the courtesy of a response.  I don't know what his intentions are, but it leaves me and a few others holding the bag on a few unfinished projects.  If he fails to return these issues will resonate for months if not years (without exaggeration).  How do you walk away like that without even a word of explanation?  Especially if there are others left behind who will have to take the brunt of the fallout for your disappearance?

My husband has a very close friend who he's known forever and loves like a brother.  We had a falling out with some mutual friends several months ago.  Knowing that it's awkward we've never placed him in a position of having to "choose" one over the other.  We don't involve him in the dispute or pump him for information, what's done is done.  Then inadvertantly we find out that he was out here just a couple of weeks ago, visiting with them.  He lives on the other side of the state, so any opportunity we get to see him is good.  Yet when he was only 90 minutes away instead of six hours, he didn't even call.  I know that it's probably uncomfortable, but if you're going to be geographically available couldn't you at least call or consider maybe a side meeting for a cup of coffee?  Something, anything?

A week ago my father became very ill and was hospitalized.  My mother's response has been to climb directly into her bottle and stay there, with my brother close behind.  She only went to see him the first day (half in the bag) and has been incoherent since then.  Calling there in the evening is like dialing into an episode of "Cops" with her screaming "Where's my beer?!?" and throwing things at my stoner brother who's just as messed up.  They couldn't even stay functional for 48 hours in case something worse happened.  My father's been cleaning up after them for over a decade and they couldn't even give him two days.  He came home tonight, but he's worn out and they sent him home with alot of meds and oxygen that he has to be on for the next four weeks.  When I called he was hungry, cold, tired and basically alone -- sitting at the dining room table on his oxygen while they were passed out cold in the other rooms.  They didn't even go to pick him up at the hospital.

While doing some random surfing I came across one of the sites we visit on occasion and interestingly enough I find that the folks we had the falling out with decided to do some mudslinging in black & white on one of their profiles.  It's not horrendous I suppose, but it was hurtful and unfair.  We'd already decided back when this came down that we weren't going to respond to them, but it just came out of left field and I was unprepared to see it. 

Compound that by a trip today to WalMart where we had to deal with the teeming unwashed masses -- where finding a parking spot and just maneuvering your cart and getting your family from one end of the store to the other is a lesson in teeth-gritting frustration.

We like to say that if you have no expectations then you can never be disappointed.  Well that sucks.  I want to have expectations.  I want to not have to prepare for battle rather than just expect actual customer service.  I want people to say "excuse me" and "please" and "thank you."  I want messages replied to, regardless of format.  I want to expect my mother not to abandon her family when times get rough.  I want the spirit of a friendship upheld even if it's rocky at times.  I want people to have standards and stick to them, not treat everything like it's a joke and act like their actions have no impact on anyone else (personally or professionally).

Then again, doesn't matter what I want.  If wishes were horses then beggars would ride.  Course if more folks were riding horses maybe I'd be able to find an actual parking spot at $*&#)*$&*@ Walmart.

Enough ranting, time to regain some zen and pretend like none of it gets to me.