Supermarkets come with queues, and more often than not, a sort of failed look out and pseudo calculations as to which might take less time to be processed through.
There is also the quick, often queueless machines, but they come with a rather un comfortable baggage made of being made to do a job for without being paid for it – and risking other people’s jobs at the same time..
So earlier today I found myself in a queue. The person at the till was trying to work out the price of bananas, the kiwis, and after a few painless items, he got seriously stuck with the melon. No one could come to his aid, because the supermarket cuts down on staff – so the queue got longer, and people began drifting into other queues which in tern – became longer as well.
By the time he got some help – people were seriously getting exacerbated, and that was before my turn to be processed..
This got me thinking:
Following such events, as a rather new/learner check out person – would I have said sorry to each person in the queue as you processed them? Or would you rather get on with out a mention/reminder of your activities?
If I said “Sorry” what search would that Sorry be from?
The sorry could come from a fear for my job, but that’s a psychological issue.. The cultural search from Sorry would be a tool/device to enable a process/practice for refinement/correction of activities, no?
If I said sorry, then I could make myself recall the mistakes and hopefully do better later. Assuming I do not enjoy saying or even being sorry..
Also, there is there a sort of civic-cultural performative act. Each person in the queue might have recalled my sorry saying every time they are in a similar situation/sequence – and might consider doing their own version..
The sorry might have been said just because I thought it was a cultural thing to-do – but I’d mean it not. Perhaps not even be clear/open for all these various aesthetics and cultural aspects of Sorry.
However, it can be argued, that even meaninglessly, the act/performance of sorry, might function as a regret one doesn’t want to repeat. The slight uncomfortableness of addressing each person and saying a word in link to an act you are not entirely proud of – is not something I’d like to repeat as often as possible, no?
Perhaps No – unless its fun, a joy, an act I can perform with a hidden gap between expression and shared stipulation. (eg, am happy/indifferent, but have to make a sad face..)
The other option is to utterly perform this. ie to be open about being an active performance of regret.. I’ll be very regretful in the next few mins, as a short performance of someone being very sorry indeed..
Are these 3 different cultural/cultivating searches? (being sorry, being a distance between sorry and hidden joy, and cultivating the shared pretence of being sorry..) Or is there a missing search there?
Perhaps these are searches/processes of a singular more wide search??