DMN: 'Whose Cat Have You Kicked?'

DMN Op/Ed Column
Thursday, December 21, 2006

Little interactions can change the course of your day, says MIKKI KIRBY, so make sure it's for the better.

I walked out of Hamm's Custom Meats in downtown McKinney recently giggling at the absurdity of the situation I had just encountered.
A friend had heard that the honey-baked ham at the meat market is uncontested. So she and I went in to buy one. Hamm's doesn't take credit cards, and I had no cash or check.
"That's OK, honey," the pleasant lady behind the counter said. "You can just mail me a check. Take the ham."
My instinct was to look at my friend to ensure I didn't misunderstand the lady. Her reaction was the same.
"You're kidding, right?" my friend Leslie responded, perplexed.
But she wasn't. "Honey, if you go home happy with a ham to feed your family, I don't care about the money," the lady replied.
This simple gesture got me thinking. There are people out there in our everyday lives who believe in human decency. These people epitomize what Charles Dickens wrote in A Christmas Carol: "I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year."
There are nice people still left in the world. We just have to take notice.
But it seems we take more from our encounters with miserable people: the rude, overwhelmed checkout girl; the angry driver who cut us off with the wave of a middle finger; the testy hostess in the Santa hat who ignored our wishes for nonsmoking.
Motivational speaker Zig Ziglar has based a speech on the question, whose cat have you kicked today? It's a simple theory that how we treat each other affects more than just the person we encounter. The way we treat one another changes the context of our attitudes. It changes the quality of our lives.
Say you are having a bad day, namely because of the angry driver who cut you off on your way to the office. You take it out on your secretary – who, by the way, was having a perfectly nice day before you walked in. She in turn takes it out on the delivery guy, who then takes it out on his son, who then takes it out on his cat. There is a chain reaction.
Mr. Ziglar then asks, "Why not turn it around by being nice?" Spread love, instead of discontent.
Take Jerry Click of the Garland Fire Department, for example. For the past 20 some-odd years, he has headed up the fire association's annual holiday shopping spree for underprivileged children. Witnessing him in action will make you stop and think about the way you treat people.
I can't imagine even Ebenezer Scrooge crossing his path without leaving him with a smile. He's jovial and complementary, and for no other reason than he means it. And he doesn't hesitate to share it.
Mr. Click has a reason to be in a bad mood this time of year. He spends most of his time worrying about the children who didn't get a chance to buy Christmas gifts because they were left off his list.
He was bogged down with regret at this year's event because he forgot to check in on one family who didn't make it. But you would have never known. He greeted each child and their families with genuine enthusiasm and gentleness.
"I should have gone by and picked them up," he said while monitoring the door at Target in Garland, looking for the family. A slight furl on his brow was the only sign of his unhappiness.
When that family arrived late, you would have sworn they had just presented him with a check for $1 million dollars. I'm guessing that family spent the day being nice to others. How could they help it?
For a morning, they were wrapped in love by a simple gesture of concern from a sweet man.
Isn't that nice?
Mikki Kirby is a Dallas freelance writer. Her e-mail address is mikkikirby@yahoo.com.