Shoutin’ at Walmart: a short parable

Tuesday, I was minding my own business, walking through Walmart, when suddenly a lady’s voice came over the public address system. She was yelling. Some of her words were indecipherable. From what I picked up, she was irate with her best friend. Evidently her friend had wronged her in some way. Now all the customers in Walmart were hearing the gruesome particulars of this wrong via loudspeaker. I’m sure that stunt made the situation even worse.

Wednesday, I was strolling through the mall, looking for a coffee shop, when an angry man shouted over the building-wide intercom, “Listen up!” The man’s voice was so loud, and alarming, that nearly everyone around me stopped walking. Within a moment the man began to berate his supervisor, and run down his current employer. He made vicious accusations against his company for everyone in the mall to hear. His anger was intense. Certainly, the man’s situation at work was not bettered by his mall tirade.

Thursday evening, I was spending some time perusing my favorite social networking site when I noticed a ‘friend’ had posted disturbing comments about his wife. He had written numerous complaints about many aspects of her habits, her personality and even her character. Frankly, I was stunned, and even embarrassed, to see such personal issues being aired in such a public forum. My heart sank as I realized that my ‘friend’s’ actions had harmed his marriage even more.

Friday morning it hit me. While few people would ever dream of airing their personal relationship issues over a loudspeaker at Walmart, many would not hesitate to do so via the internet. And yet, it seems that if a person is going to divulge personal issues to the hundreds of folks who read their social networking posts, then they might as well share that same personal information over the intercom at a department store.

Sunday, I determined to always ask myself one question before clicking POST: “Would I say this on the P.A. at Walmart?”

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