The good, the bad and the...it's ALL good!

I find myself getting melancholy wondering why sensitivity and appreciation are wasted on the middle-aged. If you don't know me well, this next statement will be telling about my age:

I miss the days that business' were always closed on Sunday, that department stores closed at 6pm five nights a week, that no one worked on holidays except telephone operators and hospitals, and if you ran out of something after dinner you would just have to wait until the store opened tomorrow. We had to talk to each other, spend some down-time together, and were never available 24-7 nor had any desire to be so.

What, you may wonder is the relationship between my melancholy and this new sensitivity? I find more and more, and much to my delight that our crummy economy is heralding a return to a kinder, gentler us. People actually seemed pleased to take your order today, no longer surly about a "bad" job. Clerks are helpful and caring and friendly. Small and mid-sized business now demonstrate every day the ingenuity and creativity that feels a lot more like the place I grew up in.

To whit: The Dodge dealership offering free oil-changes and tune-ups to the owners of any Dodge, Saturn or Kia...the kind of relationship building that has more to do with the customer than with the price point. Or the car wash giving away free "shammys" with every car wash (refer to April blog "fonetic sosietee!) because winning customers today means you have to go the extra mile. Consider the small but quaint restaurant that partnered with the struggling antique store next door to provide both extra seating for the weekend crowds and to get foot traffic into the antique shop - creative, ingenious, and delightfully smart in that it is both old-fashioned and trend setting.

And my favorite story of the week: On Wednesday we learned that some banks are demolishing foreclosed homes, because after all, banks didn't ever intend to own the homes, only the paper. And the foreclosures continue: short sales, defaults, abandonments, and refinancing is nigh unto impossible. But on Thursday, this light at the end of my reflective tunnel: one big bank has partnered with organizations that assist the homeless and are now leasing the foreclosed empty houses to homeless families for $1, provided they will live in the house for a year and keep the property up. NOW THAT'S WHAT I'M TALKIN' ABOUT! Don't you just love it? Risky? Sure. Selfless? Probably not. But good God, lending a hand for whatever reason reminds me so much of the post 9/11 sentiment that swept the country but vanished too soon.

Ahhh I'm melancholy, sentimental and probably old-fashioned. These small stories are an unanticipated silver lining. Eventually this current challenge may make us all stronger and better. Of course you may have to remind me of that when I'm working into my '80's.