'This I Believe' essay: "Be Cool to the Pizza Dude" by Sarah Adams

[Up2Late]

(This is such a beautiful essay/Audio clip (5:00) from Monday's "All Things Considered" (NPR), that I had to share it with those who missed it. More info about the new "This I Believe" series available at the link below.)

All Things Considered, May 16, 2005 ·

Be Cool to the Pizza Dude

by Sarah Adams

If I have one operating philosophy about life it is this: "Be cool to the pizza delivery dude; it's good luck." Four principles guide the pizza dude philosophy.

Principle 1: Coolness to the pizza delivery dude is a practice in humility and forgiveness. I let him cut me off in traffic, let him safely hit the exit ramp from the left lane, let him forget to use his blinker without extending any of my digits out the window or towards my horn because there should be one moment in my harried life when a car may encroach or cut off or pass and I let it go. Sometimes when I have become so certain of my ownership of my lane, daring anyone to challenge me, the pizza dude speeds by me in his rusted Chevette. His pizza light atop his car glowing like a beacon reminds me to check myself as I flow through the world. After all, the dude is delivering pizza to young and old, families and singletons, gays and straights, blacks, whites and browns, rich and poor, vegetarians and meat lovers alike. As he journeys, I give safe passage, practice restraint, show courtesy, and contain my anger.

Principle 2: Coolness to the pizza delivery dude is a practice in empathy. Let's face it: We've all taken jobs just to have a job because some money is better than none. I've held an assortment of these jobs and was grateful for the paycheck that meant I didn't have to share my Cheerios with my cats. In the big pizza wheel of life, sometimes you're the hot bubbly cheese and sometimes you're the burnt crust. It's good to remember the fickle spinning of that wheel.

Principle 3: Coolness to the pizza delivery dude is a practice in honor and it reminds me to honor honest work. Let me tell you something about these dudes: They never took over a company and, as CEO, artificially inflated the value of the stock and cashed out their own shares, bringing the company to the brink of bankruptcy, resulting in 20,000 people losing their jobs while the CEO builds a home the size of a luxury hotel. Rather, the dudes sleep the sleep of the just.

Principle 4: Coolness to the pizza delivery dude is a practice in equality. My measurement as a human being, my worth, is the pride I take in performing my job -- any job -- and the respect with which I treat others. I am the equal of the world not because of the car I drive, the size of the TV I own, the weight I can bench press, or the calculus equations I can solve. I am the equal to all I meet because of the kindness in my heart. And it all starts here -- with the pizza delivery dude.

Tip him well, friends and brethren, for that which you bestow freely and willingly will bring you all the happy luck that a grateful universe knows how to return.

More info about "This I Believe" Project
(To hear the audio, follow the link above)

[LynzM]

1. I heard this the other day.

Good stuff. I'm thinking about writing my own... :)

[Village Idiot]

2. Look what it did for Judy Sgro's career in Canadian politics...

heeheeheeheeheeheeheeheehee...

[progressivebydesign]

3. WHile it makes a cute essay...

..I've nearly been killed by those pizza dudes. I have empathy for motel maids mostly... they have to clean up the remnants of other people's vacations, and it seems particularly cruel.

Pizza dudes have killed other people with their bad driving. I get the whole zen thing of what she's trying to portray... but killing people with your car doesn't quite do it for me.

I think motel maids are more worthy of that empathy.

[Up2Late]

4. I don't really think it matters if its "the Pizza Dude" or the motel maid

that not really the point. I think the entire essay could be summed up with the line

"...there should be one moment in my harried life when a car may encroach or cut off or pass and I let it go..."

Or to put it in Buddhist terminology, we should all try to show compassion to ALL our fellow sentient beings (fellows humans and living creatures).

or "Be Cool to others, as you would like them to be Cool to you."

or, be Cool to the ____________.:hippie:

[Lady Effingbroke]

6. I was "the pizza dude(ette)" and had to drive very carefully, as I could

only afford the bare-bones minimum insurance policy. A wreck would have cost me my car and my job.

I realize that there are bad pizza drivers, however, there are plenty of bad drivers, period, most of whom are not delivery drivers.

I can say from my own experience that no one I worked with drove recklessly while on the clock - the company I worked for offered cash bonuses for accumulating "Accident Free Hours" and getting two tickets in a year was grounds for termination.

I respect everyone who has to work a crappy job to get by, be it driving pizza, cleaning motel rooms, checking groceries, or flipping burgers.

Been there, done that (well, I haven't been a motel maid - yet).

I think I shall print this gem of an article out and laminate it so my tears of gratitude to Ms. Adams don't ruin the paper.

[Up2Late]

5. Kick n/t

:kick: