I got you

I ran to the store this week to pick up a few groceries, including a bunch of bananas. I was checking myself out and everything was going smoothly until I weighed the bananas. They didn’t show up on the scale. I tried multiple times—nothing.

I called for the employee and asked for help. He picked up the bananas, typed in the code, and then placed the bunch on the scale. No weight registered. Then he picked up my perfectly ripe, yellow bananas and slammed them down on the scale.

AAHHH! What the?

He did it THREE times.

I watched in horror, my mouth hanging open with disbelief. Had he ever handled a banana before? Or for that matter, had he ever handled fruit in general?? Should I say something?

After the third slam, he turned to me and said,

“I got you.”

I don’t know how he missed my stunned expression. Were his words supposed to be comforting? He was ruining my bananas! Finally, I managed to mutter,

“Well, I’d like to buy non-bruised bananas, please.”

He smiled, then took the fruit to a different register and weighed it there. He brought over the total amount and entered it into my machine. He stood next to me, smiling and beaming with pride.

“See, I got you.”

I pulled out my card and paid for some sad-looking, rough-handled, bruised bananas.

I was annoyed.

I’ve been thinking about that phrase, “I got you” ever since I left the store. There seems to be some arrogance attached to it—like I know the best way to help/fix/alleviate the problem. And truthfully, the employee did actually help since I was able to pay for all my groceries and leave the store. But the WAY he “got me” made my bananas bruised and squishy.

Gross.

My life has been full of frustrations lately. And I’ve been…onery.

Metaphorically, I’ve been slamming a lot of yellow bananas around here. I can definitely take credit for putting out some fires, but the manner in which I’ve been doing it needs a little tweaking. If the way “I got you” was to yell and demean and lay on some motherly guilt—I’ve just solved one problem and created several more.

Again—gross.

Today is a new month, and I’m tired of being onery. I’m still going to help, but I’m going to look at the way I’m actually doing it. I’m never going to use the phrase, “I got you.” It’s arrogant and annoying—AND it turns perfectly beautiful yellow bananas into bruised, soft, ugly ones. Nobody wants those.

Who’s with me?