Hold the Elevator

I’ve done it. You’ve done it. I’m pretty sure we all have done it at some point in our lives.

You’re standing in the elevator either alone or with a few others. You are running behind schedule that day and on your way up to an appointment on a higher floor. Out of the corner of your eye, you see a figure rushing for your elevator. They’re carrying a briefcase and a stack of rumpled papers, looking at their watch as they are clearly running late as well.

The elevator “dings” indicating the doors are about to close when you hear the plea: “Hold the elevator please!” You glance down at the buttons in front of you, fumble about and move your hand as if you are going to press the “open door” button, but instead, you don’t press any button or you press the “close door” button. “Sorry, I tried,” you squeak through the almost closed doors. You justify your actions by telling yourself that there were a lot of buttons and how were you supposed to know right where each button is on that particular elevator? The doors close and you are on your way up to your appointment and the other person will have to take the next elevator.

Part of you thinks, “Heh Heh, that was clever of me and I saved four seconds.” And then comes the nagging voice in your head that says, “What a jerk. For a few seconds saved, that other person might have been late for their meeting.”

Which one of these voices do you listen to? Did it change your behavior recognizing you were being a jerk? Did you feel bad and slightly angry at yourself? Or did you think you had succeeded in some way by getting ahead of the other person? Would you have lost so much time if you had truly searched for the open door button?

Later that day, you’re driving in a very crowded traffic and need to move over three lanes quickly to make your freeway connection. You turn on your left blinker and look for an opening between cars big enough for you to squeeze into one lane, then the next, and the next. You see a gap and are just about to move one lane to the left when a car zooms up from behind filling the space you were going for. Did they see your blinker? Oh yes, they saw it, but to them it was all about getting ahead, getting there faster, even by just one car.

We all know that one car length doesn’t amount to any time savings yet some people must fill that gap because they don’t want to lose the space to you. And you think to yourself or you curse out loud, “What a jerk!”

So you try it again and again and eventually by poking your nose into a space between cars just big enough to fit your front left fender, forcing someone, anyone, to allow you to move into “their” lane.

Does Karma really know where you live? Is this payback for the elevator incident?

Are you the person who lets someone into “your” lane? Or do you close the gap so nobody enters ahead of you while mumbling, “No siree bub, you’re not getting in ahead of me.”

Who are we? What have we become?

Are we in such a hurry that we forget to treat our fellow humans nicely and with respect? Think of how nice it feels when someone holds the elevator for you, or when someone lets you into their lane on the freeway, or someone holds a door to the store open for you. Think of how much nicer it would be living in a society in which we all treated each other better.

This week, commit to holding the elevator for someone, let a few cars go in front of you and merge into your lane, hold the door open for someone. Do it for you, you’ll feel better. Do it for them, they’ll feel better. You might lose a few seconds, but you’ll definitely put a smile on someone’s face and isn’t that much more important?

© Larry Jacobson