{"id":16479,"date":"2021-08-11T00:50:31","date_gmt":"2021-08-11T00:50:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/?p=16479"},"modified":"2021-08-10T20:13:49","modified_gmt":"2021-08-10T20:13:49","slug":"drive-thru-deplorables","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/2021\/08\/11\/drive-thru-deplorables\/","title":{"rendered":"Drive-thru Deplorables"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Eric Valentine<\/em><\/p>\n

L<\/span>et\u2019s be honest. As much as I value and practice and advocate healthy eating, home cooking and enjoying authentic cuisine, it\u2019s not always convenient or easy. Sometimes, a McDonald\u2019s Sausage McMuffin, hash browns, and medium coffee with one creamer is a guilty-pleasure go-to, a way to balance out the positive effects of a morning hike with my dog. The other day, while in the drive-thru, I found myself guilty of hypocrisy\u2014and not the dietary kind. <\/span><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s fast forward real quick to this past weekend. I gave a keynote speech at this year\u2019s KYMfest in Nampa, a celebration dedicated to Kym Larsen who was murdered in a domestic violence assault in March 2018. In response, the victim\u2019s family created a nonprofit organization that connects anyone providing or needing support in dealing with trauma. They use the motto \u201cKind Your Mind\u201d (the initial letters of which spell \u201cKym\u201d) in the hopes of rooting out the triggers to systemic violence. <\/span><\/p>\n

So naturally, I crafted a speech on such triggers, and it was an altercation at a fast-food drive-thru that reminded me we all have work to do. Here\u2019s how the episode went down:<\/span><\/p>\n

I arrive at one of those big-city double-lane drive-thrus where you have to eventually merge to pick up your food and pay.<\/span><\/p>\n

My enormous red wagon was clearly next in line to merge, ahead of a lady in a small blue sedan. But before I moved forward, she sped up, indicating she was going to cut me off. <\/span><\/p>\n

I really couldn\u2019t have cared less, but because she was cutting me off, I was preventing the driver behind me from getting close enough to the microphone to place his order. So, I drove forward just a scooch to try to make room. The lady in the blue car, without looking at me and just reading on her phone, scooched up each time I did, too. <\/span><\/p>\n

When the cars ahead of us all moved up on full spot, the lady in the blue car\u2014again without even looking at me\u2014floored the gas, cut me off for good, and slammed on her brakes before she nearly rear-ended the car ahead. I blasted my horn.<\/span><\/p>\n

She then rolled down her window and said, \u201cI ordered before you, so you can shut up now, thank you!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

My initial response wasn\u2019t bad at all. I said, \u201cYou know that\u2019s all you had to say when you cut me off the first time. I would have let you go ahead.\u201d No response.<\/span><\/p>\n

My second response was also acceptable. I said, \u201cI was only inching forward to let the man behind me get his order in. It\u2019s called being polite. You should try it some time.\u201d No response.<\/span><\/p>\n

Feeling beyond ignored and entirely dismissed, my third response was this, \u201cYou ordered before me, huh? I bet you ordered more than me too, fat bitch!\u201d She was truly obese. I say that not to make an excuse for myself, but to illustrate how mean I was being in that moment, conveniently and easily if immediate satisfaction is one\u2019s goal.<\/span><\/p>\n

She then flipped me off and called me an expletive. My response was this, \u201cSo that\u2019s what it took for you to communicate with me. I had to be mean. Think about that as you chow down your breakfast.\u201d She barked another expletive back at me and I was able to let that one go.<\/span><\/p>\n

When she reached window #1 to pay, I could see her talking more than one would expect to the cashier, and I didn\u2019t see her hand over money or a card. I thought, \u201cGreat, I bet someone heard me call her that name and paid for her meal to show an act of random kindness. I wish they\u2019d seen what she did to me.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

I then finally reached window #1 myself and grabbed my card to pay. The cashier said, \u201cSir, the person two cars ahead of you has already paid for your meal.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

I hope my speech on kindness last weekend did some good for whomever heard it. When put to music the way I do on stage it has done a lot of good before. But beyond the right words, it\u2019s kind action that will root out systemic violence in a culture. And it sometimes doesn\u2019t happen conveniently or easily. But it\u2019s a happy meal we all should digest.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Eric Valentine Let\u2019s be honest. As much as I value and practice and advocate healthy eating, home cooking and enjoying authentic cuisine, it\u2019s not always convenient or easy. Sometimes, a McDonald\u2019s Sausage McMuffin, hash browns, and medium coffee with one creamer is a guilty-pleasure go-to, a way to balance out the positive effects of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16480,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","_pvb_checkbox_block_on_post":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16479","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-commentary"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16479","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16479"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16479\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16481,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16479\/revisions\/16481"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16480"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}