Trivialities

There’s a construction site across the street from my office. The contractors have taken over an entire road’s worth of street parking, and half the time they’ve got delivery trucks and cement mixers hanging out in the street with a flagger waving traffic through one lane back and forth. Most of the time it’s not a big deal, at least for us. Our biggest inconvenience is occasionally having to wait an extra minute or two to either get in or out of the complex. I imagine the project is slightly more trying for the several massage therapists who have had to soundproof their offices against the booming noises of dump trunks and bulldozers. But my life has been impacted only in the most modest fashion by the builders. Of course, that doesn’t stop me from sighing heavily and rolling my eyes when I have to wait around for an 18 wheeler to back its load up and get the hell out of my way.

That’s what happened to me this afternoon when I was suddenly reminded of a story I read a while back. A nanny was hired by some moneyed socialite in Los Angeles to tend to her needs around the house. One of the tasks the nanny was to perform each day was to bring 2 glasses of sparkling water to the socialite, one in the morning, and one in the afternoon. The morning glass was to have a slice of lemon with it. The afternoon glass, a slice of lime. The nanny, being young, middle class, and completely unimpressed with the trappings of wealth, confused the fruit garnishes on her second day and was promptly fired for her incompetence. As she left the property she tossed an off-handed remark to one of the other housekeepers. “Why in the world is it such a big deal whether it’s lemon or lime in her water?” The housekeeper responded, “When you have this much money, you sometimes have to invent things to be annoyed about, because so few real problems exist in your world.”

As I sat impatiently drumming my fingers on the steering wheel waiting for the truck to move, I realized I was behaving like the absurd character from the story. Poor me– I’m driving home in a comfortable car from a job I love, to a man I love, to eat a delicious dinner, in my beautiful home, in a fantastic city where I have lots of friends and tons of opportunity, and I’m getting exasperated because I have to wait an extra 90 seconds to leave the parking lot.

That feeling was not a pleasant one. There are tiny annoyances in every day, in every life, in every socioeconomic status, but I don’t have to give them headspace. Let’s see how long I can hold onto that thought before the next inconvenience threatens to ruin my good mood.

Details sometimes matter. But not always.

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