My daughter works at a restaurant. As far as the employees knew, a new guy became general manager last fall. Well, it turned out that, a couple of months later, he bought the restaurant from the long-time owners. One of James's observations was that the people around here are NICE. Really nice. Patient. Kind. The employees are (overall) more agreeable to work with, and they have a better-than-average work ethic, as well as respect for their co-workers. The customers, too, are a whole different level of nice from the customers he worked with in other cities.
Fast-forward a few months. Now it's Lent. This restaurant traditionally sees a sizable increase in business during Lent, largely due to sales of cod, shrimp, and walleye.
The new owner and new managers were surprised by the sales of fish dinners. They hadn't seen anything like this in the other locales where they'd worked.
Just a thought ...
Are the type of people who keep the Lenten fast also the type of people who take their Christianity seriously ... and are thus nicer people overall?
Not saying that those of us who eat burgers and chicken during Lent are lesser Christians. Also not saying that those of us who are strict with our no-meat-Lent are necessarily more patient or kind than others.
But it is interesting that there were two separate observations of the culture of our area. And maybe there's a correlation that's not readily obvious to the casual observer.
