THAT Person

Dear Patient,

I treat patients in a community setting, meaning multiple people in one large room. People are spread apart, the lighting is soft, the atmosphere subdued and serene…until someone’s phone rings.

Then there’s the mad scramble by the offending phone owner to locate the phone and quickly silence it before the loud ringing pierces the quiet calm and disturbs everyone else. Too late.

Recently this happened to a longtime patient and she was mortified. She’s visited the clinic hundreds of times, and the one time she forgets to silence her phone, it goes off.

“I’m so embarrassed,” she said, “I was THAT person!”

No one wants to be THAT person. One time on an airplane I wasn’t paying attention and spilled my full plastic cup of ginger ale on the man sitting next to me in his nice business suit. I was THAT person.

We all get to have our turn at being THAT person every now and then, even those of us who like to think of ourselves as among the more aware and courteous members of our species. We spill things. We forget things. We are all are THAT person. Don’t be so hard on yourself when it’s your turn, and maybe extend a little grace to someone else when it’s theirs.

Love and gratitude,

Your Acupuncturist