Growing up in a large family has provided my with social skills that I’m not always aware of. Take yesterday for example. After checking my car into the local Honda dealer for some routine maintenance and state safety inspection, I went to sit in the customer lounge area for the duration.
I always come equipped to keep myself busy when I have to wait, carrying along my iPad and a knitting project just in case the time runs long. The lounge is a comfortable area, with cushy armchairs that provide a cozy place to sit. A mini fridge, stocked with bottled water sits in the lounge and hot beverages are available around the corner. And, as with most common areas these days, there is also a large screen television for distraction.
Generally the waiting area isn’t very crowded since most folks drop their cars off early and take the courtesy shuttle to their offices. But yesterday the room was full of people. There was a feeling of heaviness in the room as I took my place in an empty cushy chair. It didn’t take long to realize why everyone looked so uneasy. The television was tuned to Fox News where Kellyanne Conway was spinning plates in defense of the president’s most recent faux pas in Helsinki. Some people are gifted with the ability to block out background noise, I am not one of them. I knew I wouldn’t be able to sit there and listen so began to mentally run down other areas at the dealership where I could sit.
Then I took a quick glance around the room again to see if my first impression was correct and yes, sure enough, the other folks did indeed look uncomfortable. Wondering if perhaps they felt the same way I did, I dug deep into the lessons I learned as a child living in a house with eight people and one television set and politely asked, “Would anyone mind if I changed the tv channel?”
Now I was totally prepared to take any heat given and would have quietly relocated myself if need be, but happily the responses were; “Oh, please do!”, “Yes” and “How about the Today Show?” And, as there were no dissenters, I got up and with the remote in hand, changed the channel. Immediately the room felt lighter and soon people started chatting with each other.
As I took my place in my chair and grabbed my knitting, a woman across the room said to me, “Thank you so much, I never would have had the guts to even ask.”
Little did she know that compared to the risk of a barrage of counter-battery provided by my siblings while trying to come to a consensus on which Saturday morning cartoons we would watch, politely asking a group of strangers a question was easy.