A Short Stoic Story…
Rows upon rows of processed feed and trinkets line the shelves. A smell of plastic and pennies settles at the lowest points like that of a basement. Fluorescent lights one by one flicker on as if tenuously at best gripping onto the remaining luminescence left in them. The cold air of the morning brings a wakefulness to even those with the longest nights. This may not be the best place to be, yet anyone can get the lowest prices of any “foods and stuffs” a person would need.
Tugging on his vest straight and adjusting the buttons. Mark is nervously running through different greetings through his head…
“Hi… no no.”
“Hey there… nah.”
“Howdy… nope!”
“Hello… eh ok.”
This is this young man’s first day at his first job being the greeter at a FloorMart. Not anyones first choice, but “entry level is where everyone starts, dad always tells me.” Mark murmurs into his locker.
“What are you MUTTERING over there!” The manager yells condescendingly, prying in on the privacy of his new employee.
Adjusting his name tag and closing his locker, “oh nothing just something my dad sa….”
“Yeah yeah yeah enough speaking and get to work. I don’t pay you to stand around doing nothing.” The manager says with distain lingering on his breath.
Mark looks down at his watch and it is ten minutes til he need to clock in. Confused he thinks to himself, “but I’m early.”
Mark walks over to the touch screen pad fastened to the wall to clock in swiping his badge through the slot as a chime sounds signaling his shift to start. Making his way to the front door to await anyone coming in.
The manager comes to unlock the door glaring in Mark’s direction as the mechanized sliding doors open by the step of the first patron on the pressure sensitive mat.
“Hello! Welcome to FloorMart! Deals on frozen items now til Thursday!” The young man says nailing the first one perfect as he swings down a fist in celebration.
Simply shrugging him off the first patron a man who looks like he may have woken up outside shuffles by without saying a word.
Grunting as he passes Mark. “Hm ok, well looks like he may be uncomfortable. Otherwise surely he knew I was being kind.” Mark scratching his head thinking to himself.
FloorMart is your typical chain multipurpose markets, though it is special because of the variety of people that come in. Mark’s Dad referred his son to take this job as a greeter. His dad told him, “everyone should work a customer service job because you will learn how to manage people in all kinds of states of mind.” Mark hasn’t got the sense for it yet, but his dad seems to think he may learn a thing or two at this entry level opportunity.
“Hello! Welcome to FloorMart! Dish soap is two for one today!”
“Rude! You child!” A scraggly old woman with a collapsible cane and hat with a large flower upon it.
She continued, “…how dare you speak to me unless spoken to, you know all you youngsters don’t have the first lick of sense. Can’t you see I am minding my own damn business. What a waist of youth! I did so much more with my life than you at your age!” She stormed off mid sentence, but got louder as she went shuffling away from Mark.
“Woah…” Mark says taking that in for a moment as several people pass him by in his confusion as he murmurs, “Welcome to FloorMart….” trailing off in thought each time.
“Oh! Envious maybe?!” Mark’s lightbulb goes off as he tries to decipher why that happened. Despite that Mark continued on greeting.
After greeting the last flow of people during his shift Mark begins to make his way back to his locker as he unbuttons the top button on his vest.
“Excuse Me!” A large woman in a grocery-cart-scooter slowly approaches yelling.
“Um Hello! Young Man!” The woman yells again.
In front of Mark stands his manager glaring at him and pointing to the woman insisting he helps. Mark had just clocked out, but decides to help her anyway.
“Very well miss, what can I help you with,” says Mark fastening the buttons of his vest again.
The wheels of the grocery cart scooter squeaked under the pressure of its occupancy. As the woman continues to mash the go button like the potatoes of her side order of mashed potatoes in her basket from CFC (Country Fried Chicken).
Slowly puttering on she begins to demand, “I need protein bars!”
Mark guides her down to the isle with all the protein bars for the woman and stands there awaiting her next command. An awkward silence washes the isle as the heavy breathing of the woman and the faint beeping of a dying cart battery become a white noise. Mark zones out into a meditation.
“Hey boy what are you still standing next to me for?! Get lost!” The large woman protests!
“Oh! well… your welcome!” Snapping out of his patient waiting.
Mark walking towards the exit thinks, “boy she seemed ungrateful. That’s too bad.”
Making his way home Mark slides his key into the door turning and opening to the hallway where from the distance…
“Hey son, how was your first day?” Mark’s dad yells from the kitchen.
“Good… give me a minute!” Mark yells back and heads to his room.
Mark opens the door and approaches his mirror that sits beside his laundry basket. Taking his vest off, Mark admires the nausea he feels when looking at the combination of clown like colors. Taking the pins off and placing them on his dresser as he tosses the vest in the basket. Leaving the work behind and adorned in cloths that feel more like himself Mark makes his way to the kitchen.
Mark approaches his Dad from the opposite end of the kitchen’s island and says, “what I said wasn’t true; today was… putting it nicely… it was a salty day. I see why you think I could encounter many types of people at this job.”
“…and what did you learn?” Dad says nudging Mark to a realization.
“Well… lots of people seemed upset, disheveled and often unwell in some manner. I chose to treat them all with a mutual respect and yet I was often met with some aliment of their experience. I know we share a common good so I will act as such for them I suppose.” Mark surmises.
“Sounds like a fruitful day!” Mark’s Dad chimes.
“Though I will be quitting as I found a better job, not greeting people who don’t want to be greeted.” Mark says chuckling.
A paused silence passes as both Father and Son reflect on the day.
“Remember why I named you Mark?” His Dad asks.
“Because of a philosopher named Marcus Aurelius, right?” Mark asks.
“Right-O.” His Dad cajoles.
“You know dad today reminded me of one of his passages from Meditations.” Mark realizes.
This story was inspired by Marcus Aurelius and his passage from the second book in Meditations:
“When you wake up in the morning, tell yourself: The people I deal with today will be meddling, ungrateful, arrogant, dishonest, jealous and surly. They are like this because they cannot tell good from evil. But I have seen the beauty of good, and the ugliness of evil, and have recognized that the wrongdoer has a nature related to my own – not of the same blood or birth, but the same mind, and possessing a share of the divine. And so none of them can hurt me. No one can implicate me in ugliness. Nor can I feel angry at my relative, or hate him. We were born to work together like feet, hands and eyes, like the two rows of teeth, upper and lower. To obstruct each other is unnatural. To feel anger at someone, to turn your back on him: these are obstructions.”
Mr. Sods 