Anyone who’s taken a 5:00am flight knows, few vendors are open at 4:00am…thus no early morning caffeine to combat the four hours of sleep I was running on. When I arrived at DFW around 6:30am, I could not wait to get a coffee. On my way to my connecting gate, I purchased a large iced latte—and it hit the spot. Barely two drinks into one of the best iced lattes I’ve ever had (I exaggerate), I decided to make a quick pit stop to wash my hands. I have a thing about not carrying food or drink into a restroom, so I placed my latte on a nearby table, assuming 1) the chances of the janitorial staff visiting this particular table in the next two minutes was pretty low and 2) even if said janitorial staff did visit this table, they would quickly notice it was recently prepared, completely full, and quite cold—very conspicuous details calling out “Do not throw me away!” Well, both assumptions proved faulty, and the janitors proceed to discard the best latte to ever grace DFW, and my irritation level is elevated to say the least. I asked the two ladies in an admittedly condescending voice, “Did you seriously just throw away the full coffee that was sitting on this table?” Knowing there was nothing I could do, I walked away visibly angry and pouted at my gate. And then I, as we used to say in my neighborhood growing up, [mentally] “slapped myself upside the head”…
I reminded myself these ladies were up just as early as me (likely earlier) and were admirably performing a tough job (I used to do clean-up work when I was younger), never mind the fact I put the coffee there unattended. More importantly, if a janitor accidentally throwing away my beverage is the worst thing that happened to me that day (it was), it will have been an amazing day (and it was). I am constantly telling my wife and kids, “Our ‘problems’ are not real problems—we have nuisances and inconveniences.” And here I was in a situation violating my own rule and treating my “problem” as if it were a real one. Shame on me…
It takes a lot of life experience and practice to have, let alone maintain, a strong sense of perspective. The great Marcus Aurelius once said, “The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts.” My quality control remains a challenge, but I strive to make a little progress each day.