How Rude

What a morning! My friend accompanied me to the auto body shop to get my passenger sideview mirror stabilized in its holder. We got to our destination about ten minutes before my 11:00 A.M. appointment. The warehouse windows and doors were still closed.

After we waited a while, a man appeared. “Are you the one my brother said would be coming to see me?” I nodded a yes, feeling relieved. Greeting him by name, I said good-naturedly, “Your brother said the price for the job is sixty dollars.” He nodded as I continued, “Do you think that’s a little steep?” He examined my unstable mirror, which I had been holding in place with tape, and began pushing, pulling, twisting, and turning it.

Trying to be helpful, I asked, “Would you like me to take off the tape?” His thunderclap of a response dumbfounded me. “Don’t tell me what to do!” I immediately apologized. He continued, “I’ve been hearing the word sorry all my life.” Walking off, he exclaimed, “Fix it yourself!” Ten minutes elapsed. He returned, white puffs of smoke exiting his nostrils. When he headed toward my car door’s mirror and said, “Let me look at it,” we flew out of his path. The mechanic maneuvered the mirror and then asked me to operate the inside motor switch. Next, he got a pinch of paste and touched it to the back of the mirror, which held it fast in its holder. The mechanic urged me to purchase a tube of this paste, which was sold only to dealers. His service charge was sixty dollars for labor plus a hundred dollars for a tube of fixative paste. I decided not to purchase the tube of glue. Since coming to the repair place, I had had to bite my tongue several times, but I always decided that was the best choice.

The man suddenly asked, “Do you attend the same church as my brother?” I told him we were the same denomination but met with a different congregation.

Later, when sharing with the mechanic’s brother about our encounter at the auto shop, he chuckled and commented, “Usually he is not like that.” I was grateful that we had kept silent, as Jesus did when confronted with anger and rudeness.

May Jesus be our example every day in the face of unprofessionalism and disrespect.

Pauline A. Dwyer-Kerr