Don't Push My Buttons, Ok?

Let me tell you about the panhandler who often lurks outside my office. She is short, plump and posses a tidy, grey Dorothy Hamill bob. She crosses the street frequently between my office building and the Starbucks on the other side. ( perhaps the answer to the age-old question about the chicken crossing the road. The answer is obviously,“to get a Starbucks") I also see her at the library where she always tries to buy her library books. She throws wads of cash at the librarians, but they have lots of patience with her, returning her money and wishing her pleasant day. When we meet in the street, she asks me for a dollar, never more, never less. As I have seen her library money and her constant intake of Starbucks, I always politely decline to contribute.

But honestly, more annoying to me than the panhandling is her abuse of the cross-walk button. Most mornings as I am walking toward my office from the train, she is headed the opposite way, straight for her morning coffee. While she waits for the light to change, she pushes the cross-walk button continuously, at a steady, rapid-fire pace, for the length of the entire light. It is not a short light either. This series of staccato beeps literally drives me crazy, but she never deviates from the pattern. When the light turns, she gives the button a final “just for good measure push” before she crosses.
Looking for the moral lesson, I realize that I am guilty of the same thing. Pushing the button over and over, expecting the light to change before it is time. I’m probably reaching a little here, but I am in a waiting phase right now and I need that reminder. The light will change, it always does, and my button pushing will not speed up the process. So, I’ll be here if you need me, at the light……………waiting. Laters.