Parking Hogs

What's the deal with people taking up two (or more) parking spaces for one car? The other day I drove into the parking lot at work and headed toward my usual parking space. The space I park in is a distance from the door, but there's not too many spaces left by the time I usually get in. All the good spots are already taken by the folks that get to work earlier than I do, and that's fine. I don't mind the extra exercise....Its about all I get these days. However, when the only available parking spot left within a mile of the building is taken up by someone who decided that his or her car is more valuable and precious than anyone else's and requires two parking spaces to fully secure it....that makes me MAD. OK...maybe he paid a little more for his car than I did. Still, I'm sure I paid more for my house than he paid for his car, yet I didn't build my house half on my neighbor's property to make sure it had enough room around it that nobody would need to get close to it when they walked by! And its not one of those accidental park a bit too far over the line kind of deals that you could forgive when someone was in a hurry to get to a meeting kind of thing. No. Its a deliberate park at an angle to take up two full spaces kind of thing that burns me up! Somewhere along the line, certain people just decided that they are the ones who should make up the rules and not tell anyone else about them (this, of course, is so they can change them at will when the mood strikes). I think these are the same people who decide that it's their right to have an empty seat on either side of them in a crowded movie theatre and deny giving up the seat when some poor late-comer is desperately roaming the dark aisles blocking everyone's view...all because the hog is claiming that those seats are being "saved" for someone who never shows up. Those same people take the public bus downtown during the busy shopping season and make the old woman, who is bent over with osteoporosis and crippled by aging muscles stand in the aisle carrying three shopping bags while they sit alone in a seat built for two or three with their coat draped over the vacant portion of the seat. When they pass by the free samples in a store, they take the last five or six and feel so good about getting the bargain while paying no mind to the line of people behind them that were waiting to get one. How rude these people are. Are greed and selfishness becoming the most popular human emotions these days? How sad is this? Perhaps these are lonely people who have never been able to experience the joy of giving or sharing with others and consequently have never found friendship and companionship with others. Perhaps they are just aren't socialized and have never learned the value in being generous to others, or the freedom that can be born in trusting others. Maybe they only need to find the peace and satisfaction in letting someone else be the winner, letting the other person have the biggest slice of cake, or relieving someone else's burden..... if only for a while. Maybe we should stop to consider the possibility that perhaps the needs of the apparently rude and ignorant may outweigh our own. Or maybe these people are simply evil and need to be eliminated from society! I'll leave the choice up to you. However, the next time you take up two parking spaces in a crowded parking lot, I'll leave you to consider which choice someone else may have already made! There's a lot of crazy people in the world! Hopefully though, you'll make the right decision based on kindness instead of fear......but hey.....whatever it takes!