Monday, February 15, 2016

Where Has All the Kindness Gone

American society, though I'm sure someone could argue all society, has crumbled into a state with an acute lack of kindness.

I read another blog post recently by a woman new to conformation dog shows who credited the lack of kindness among competitors as the main contribution to it's slow and what seems inevitable demise.

This past weekend I worked as the Obedience Steward for a small regional Labrador Retriever Specialty in Charlotte, NC. I worked this show last year in the same position and both times I've had a wonderful time with the Obedience and Performance competitors. It was very nice to see some faces again I hadn't seen since the year before and it was great to see how far many had come with their dogs in a years time. We laughed about the goofy things they did and triumphed their successes.

The judges both days wanted to keep things moving as we had a pretty robust entry of obedience and rally dogs and didn't want to have things dragging on too long. The judge the first day opted to go straight through lunch, the judge the second day took a 20-minute break to get food, use the bathroom and get back to the ring to get things set up for Rally. Shortly before the break, the Chief Steward informed us the food truck was taking 10-15 minutes to get orders out, so they suggested that we order our food, use the restroom and stretch our legs and then pick our orders up. I walked out the door to a line of at least half a dozen conformation competitors in front of me in line. I stood and waited and realized the line was going nowhere fast. After several minutes of standing in line, another one of the stewards ran out with the judges meal ticket and passed it along to me with what he wanted for lunch. I continued to wait and was starting to feel anxious as I could feel my short break ticking away. Around this time the Show Chair came outside and I asked her if there was any way to get our orders in due to our short break so I could get back in time to get the ring running again. The Show Chair asked the conformation ladies in front of me if they would graciously allow me to put the judges and my order in as our ring was scheduled to begin again in 10 minutes. They hardly acknowledged our presence or the very polite question posed to them and after several seconds of awkward silence, one of them said, "we're trying to get on the road...".

Mind you, Winners Dog had just completed, Winners Bitch had yet to be judged, same with Best of Breed at this point. If their goal was to leave and get on the road as soon as possible, they could have done just that and had a multitude of places nearby to grab a quick bite to eat; their reason was nothing short of downright rudeness and selfishness.

I had no response that would not be snarky or rude, so I kept my mouth shut and thanked the Show Chair for her attempt. I got our tickets in and she graciously volunteered to bring our lunches to us so I was able to get back in time to set the ring up. She brought our lunches down which we ate as quickly as we could between classes and ring changes but I'll never forget the lack of kindness of the conformation competitors there.

We live in a time where more and more people are moving into large cities, the population is exploding, infrastructure can't keep up, frustration and intolerance builds. Technology is constantly shoved in our faces which compounds stress in our lives. Remember when you ran errands, came home and checked voicemails and then returned calls? Now those same people get upset if you don't immediately return texts, even when you are driving. The entire attitude of the population has changed and not for the better. Is there a breaking point? What is it?

For the last couple of years I've been tinkering with the idea of changing to off-grid living and the more and more this tension builds the more and more I consider it.

I think one thing is for sure; how long can society take this pressure cooker before it's all too much?