If you go to the UPS website or  Facebook Page, you may see many hundreds – thousands – of outraged posts because the package volume was higher than usual this Christmas (many more Americans are shopping online, especially in crummy weather). I’ve been writing about the culture of offense in America, increasingly fueled by social media sites where outrage and victimization can be so easily shared and fueled. As with so many trivial or temporal things, UPS is in a firestorm online.

The media loves the mob outbursts of outrage on Twitter and Facebook, outrage and offense is considered big and important news in America, and it is so cheap and simple to cover – unlike a real story, nobody has to get out of their chair. Most companies don’t even bother to defend themselves anymore, they simply start groveling,  apologizing profusely and giving some stuff away. It is considered bad public relations to be honest or tell the truth. To me, this is yet another story about compassion, one doesn’t need to be the Dalai Lama to understand UPS drivers work very hard and often under quite difficult circumstances – like winter storms and unexpected surges in online ordering. Life happens.

I read some of the messages of outrage and victimization (you have ruined my Christmas)  comments – I had several packages delayed by the heavy volume and bad weather – and I wanted to say how much I appreciate the wonderful, once even unimaginable service that UPS and it’s drivers have given me. I know my UPS driver by name, he has been delivering boxes of my book to Battenkill, he stops his truck to wish me good luck. He works unbelievably hard, is unfailingly courteous, has biscuits for the dogs,  he even risks his hide by putting packages inside the back door with Frieda on the other side if they are wet.

Once I left the pasture gate open and my UPS driver spotted it, closed it and left me a note about it. How much do you pay for that?

Over the years, I’ve had thousands of packages delivered on time by UPS and by Fedex and I cannot feel a sense of outrage because their volume shot up and my packages will arrive in a day or so. I’ve never had one come broken or damaged, I’ve never had an unpleasant experience with a UPS driver, they know me by name, wade through mud and snow to come to the back door, will root through their trucks for my stuff if I run into them on the street. Perhaps marketers might be more cautious in their promises to consumers, and maybe American consumers might grow up a bit and stop whining like spoiled and angry brats.

I see UPS drivers as witnesses to my life, they faithfully bring me the things I need to make my life work – office supplies, books, lamps, computer supplies. They are always working hard, hauling things all over the place in those big brown trucks.

In life, things happen, no person, no company – certainly not the whining Americans screaming online – live without making mistakes, encountering surprises, failing to be perfect. We are not built to be perfect, not even big corporations, they are comprised of people with feelings, they are just like us, sometimes things get away from them. Our society keeps promising more than it can deliver, and social media has become a spawning ground for howling mobs seeking offense. The messages I read speak much more poorly of the American culture than they do of UPS which works astonishingly well almost all of the time. I have a good friend who is a UPS supervisor and she is working day and night to deal with the heavy volume of packages and the crummy weather across most of the country. She cares a lot, and I e-mailed her this morning to thank her and say I was thinking of her.

Compassion is empathy, empathy is considering other people – and animals, too – besides yourself. I have no great love for corporations, but I appreciate that they are comprised of human beings, these especially hard working.  Put yourself in their tired shoes, I thank them for their very great service to me. At Christmas, it seems to me more productive to think about what the holiday means than scream in outrage because our packages our late.

I got a gift today for my UPS man when he shows up tonight with my Blu-Ray CD player and then later, for my copy of Blazing Saddles from Netflix. He has surely earned it.