• the quality or state of being mediocre.

  “heroes rising above the mediocrity that surrounds them”
  a person of mediocre ability.
  plural noun: mediocrities

Have you noticed that we live in a mediocre society. Have you noticed no one is putting 100% into their jobs & life. I have a few examples I’d like to share and these are just from the past week. I also have some examples of people who are doing more than their share.

1. I just purchased some Werther’s Soft caramel chews. The caramel was all over the wrappers so they were stuck together. Quality control should have seen there was that one that was not wrapped properly and pulled it. That is their job, right?
2. My husband just started working at Lowe’s after he retired from the military after 34 years. He has had a few issues with Lowe’s training practices. No one is training him to do his job, so he just helps the customers. He has one guy who keeps asking him how his training is going, when he is the guy who is supposed to be training him. Really frustrating for my husband. Since, my husband isn’t trained to do the job he was hired for, he helps all the customers. The customers are all surprised that someone is helping them because normally the employees hide in the back, so they don’t have to help the customers. No one complains to management, we as consumers just accept this and do for ourselves. This isn’t the only place this happens, it happens in all stores. We have all seen it and some of us have done it.  I know it was something we used to do at the court because whatever it was the customer needed was going to take you away from what you were working on probably for an hour or more. As a consumer, I do my best not to take the employee away from what they are doing, I just want to know where to find what I am looking for. If I can’t find it after that, I assume they don’t have it. It’s when you see the employee’s BSing in the back and no one is around to help you, even with directions. We need to not accept this kind of treatment. We need to start calling attention to this, so that people who want to work can have a job.
3. This is a great example and a long story. I went to see my doctor for my annual physical. He didn’t check anything important. I informed him I needed a mammogram and I wanted it done in Tifton, as it is 30 minutes as opposed to an hour drive to Valdosta. So, I have my mammo done end of Dec. I get a call I need a second mammo, they just want to double-check something they saw. My mind is freaking out, I make the appointment the next day. I go in and there are about 8 women waiting on a second mammo. I am seeing an insurance scam here but I’m braless, so I am stuck. They do the second one, and tell me to wait because they may want to do an ultrasound. No one tells me yes or no for a while. I am sitting chatting with this lovely older lady, who was in for her second one also. The ultrasound girl shows up and we do the ultrasound and she says she sees something, as she grinds into my breast. I am trying to relax about this but your mind goes all negative, which makes it hard to be positive about anything. I go back to the waiting room, no one says I can get dressed. So, I am waiting again. Next thing I know, I am told I can go. My mind is great it’s probably nothing.

I get a phone call from my doctor’s office and the girl tells me I have a cyst, who is my   surgeon? I don’t have a surgeon and I’d like to keep it that way. So, now I am all freaked out again. She says they will refer me to someone. I wait and wait and hear nothing, so I figure it’s nothing and I work on being positive. I pray that whatever it is will just disappear. On Monday I get a call from the surgeons office and they have an opening tomorrow can I make that. I’m like sure I need to get this taken care of as soon as possible, whatever it is.  The girl informs me I need to get the pictures of my mammo/ultrasound for the doctor.

So, Tuesday I get up and try to plan my day around running to Tifton to get the pictures and then to Valdosta and make sure the dogs aren’t locked up all day. I run to Tifton in the morning and sneak a visit with Roy during his lunch. Head home, let the dogs out, trying not to think of what the surgeon will have to say. I drive the hour-long trip to Valdosta and pull in the parking lot, my phone rings the surgeon I was to see had 2 emergency operations, so he wasn’t going to be able to see me. Could I reschedule or do I want them to see if one of the other doctors would see me? I said if you could check with one of the other doctors I would appreciate it. I got in the door and one of the other doctors would see me. I was so appreciative. He was the most wonderful doctor. He said that there was nothing conclusive on my report that would require surgery and then he did a breast exam and found nothing. He said my breast were normal. I usually like to hear they are extraordinary but I was happy with normal. He made all my fear go out of my head.

If someone along the way had just had the guts to tell me, there was nothing wrong, then they could have saved me many hours of worry and drive time. This doctor had the guts but it was after my doctor’s office pushed me off on someone else. I will say Tift Regional said, we would check again in 6 months, it just looked like a benign cyst. Why couldn’t my doctors office had the same approach? Mediocre medical care, which is not acceptable.

We as a society, need to insist on better than mediocre from sales people, politicians, healthcare workers and mankind. And we need to quit being mediocre to the world. Be more than mediocre. If you have to pretend you are in a competition with the world, try to be #1. Be the best you that you can be. Teach your children to be the best. Don’t settle for anything that isn’t the best in you, yourself and the world.

With the world being so negative and nasty to each other, maybe if we all worked on ourselves and quit worrying about what someone else said or did. We need to bring our best to the world to make it better. As an American, I am embarassed by the way people are behaving. I am ok, if there is a peaceful protest but the ugliness of Americans is unbelievable. It’s like the devil has taken over. Why is ok to act this way? I don’t care what your cause is, behave yourself like a decent human being. Why would anyone listen to someone who is acting like a spoiled child or an insane person. You will lose all credibility in your cause. Please world bring your best to the world and the world will bring it’s best to you.

Peace and Love,

Kelly