Friday, February 27, 2009

Could you give it a little push?

I've been at the same job for over a year now. In that year, I've taken the same walk to work every day. Down Centre, cross 6th, through the underground tunnel, past the Steel Plaza T platform, and through the spinning doors. 5 days a week the same 1 point something miles every morning.

I've learned to use recognition of people coming off the T as a good measurement of whether I'm early, late, or right on time. If I see the lady with the red coat and blue snow gloves, I'm right on time- continue with the same pace. The guy who usually wears a plaid shirt? I'm running early and can slow down a bit. If I see the shorter guy with the crutches I'm running late- panic. The reason I usually panic is not because I'm late, its deciding whether or not I want to be even later.

This guy walks up the ramp every morning at approximately 8:33. He's on crutches because he seems to be paralyzed from the waist down. Because of his condition, it takes him probably 10 times longer to get to the revolving door than it would take me. Which brings me to the next problem: the revolving door. This man needs to have both hands on his crutches leaving no free hand to actually push the door. Every time I see this guy, I hear him say the same thing to the person behind him, "could you give it a little push". Then, "Thanks again" when they get through the door and the person passes him. In the mornings that I see him, I go over my 3 choices. I could a) Stick with my pace and pass him by and let someone else help him, b) take an extra minute or so and go around to the stairs and avoid him so that I can stick with my pace but I dont have to feel guilty when I pass right by him or c) stand up to this fast paced world with deadlines and time constraints and help this guy out, even if it is just helping him revolve the door. On different days, I've picked each one of these options. The first two eat at me the whole day. Helping this guy out though means I'm 10-15 minutes late for work. I dont even know why it's such a big deal to me, I'm sure someone will come along and help him through. Sometimes I feel like I want to be late every day of the week so that I can build a relationship with this guy. He probably recognizes me by now, if I saw him every day I'm sure conversation would build. He's such a sweet guy. Ugh. I'm back to the issues in my first post about whose responsibility is who's.

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