When you’re a kid, there are few sounds sweeter than that of an ice cream truck rolling down your street. The grainy looping version of “Pop Goes the Weasel” blaring out of the single speaker on top of a converted postal van was enough to stop any kid in their tracks and prompt a frantic search for change hiding in the couch cushions.
As adults, the madness surrounding overpriced popsicles seems to have passed us by. Thankfully though, the fun didn’t have to end with our favorite stores now being just a click away online. Whether it is that pair of bedroom slippers that just went on a “flash sale” or the ability for everyone in a family to order delivery from their favorite restaurants, technology has preserved all the fun of the ice cream truck without having to look both ways before we cross the street.
At ground zero of this modern, tectonic shift towards convenience… the delivery driver!
Whether playing Santa with this week’s Amazon order, braving the pick-up line at our favorite diner or simply withstanding the neighborhood dogs to deliver our mail, the people who bring the world to our doorstep deserve their moment in the sun. Without them, we’d have to interrupt conference calls, find childcare or venture into the holiday madness. Perhaps more than anything else, during times of social distancing, they wear the masks and face potential exposures so we can stay in our sweats.
Thanking The Delivery Ninjas, Pizza Dudes and Post Ladies
A grateful society thanks everyone for their contribution, not just the obvious folks. Gratitude finds that which is admirable, necessary and helpful in everyone’s contribution, not just the folks that make the evening news. Society runs on the backs of the countless people that most of us are too busy to stop and notice, much less stop and thank properly as fellow humans doing their part.
Though they may be in our worlds and on our doorsteps for a matter of seconds, they potentially interact with hundreds of households every day. As part of their jobs, they’re greeted with suspicious looks, barking dogs and traffic jams in between. Filling their emotional tanks with gratitude, letting them know that we see them and appreciate them, is both the right and smart thing to do.
It’s the right thing to do because humans are humans. At some point, we all were just kids chasing the ice cream truck, hoping for some goodness to come our way. As adults, nothing has changed in that most of us go through our day hoping for some good to come our way. We all want to contribute, matter and be appreciated. Saying thank you is one of the most right, kind and peace-bringing acts you can ever do.
It’s also the smart thing to do. When we care for those that deliver everything we need to live, we care for ourselves. They are complex machines that our gratitude helps to maintain. Your thank you puts a bounce in their step, boosts their self-esteem and ripples forward into how they interact with the next person whose doorbell they ring.
So, next time you see them, blurt out something wonderfully awkward like “I know you don’t hear this enough, so I just wanted to say ‘thank you’ for being awesome, for bringing the world to my doorstep and hiding it behind my planter when I’m not here.”
If you can tip them, then tip them a little extra. If you’re not usually there when they drop stuff off, leave a post-it note on your door. If you’ve got kids, have them draw a picture and give it to them. However you do it, find your way to thank these bringers of joyful things and you’ll have helped deliver the exponential spread of gratitude that is the mission of the Thanks A Billion Project.