“Do unto others as you would have others do unto you.” It’s the Golden Rule and it seems so easy to follow. But you don’t often experience it at the grocery store, where everyone seems to block the bread aisle just when you need to find that one kind of bread that your husband loves. (For mine, it’s the Pepperidge Farms oatmeal bread.) I think to myself, “I want you to find your white Wonder Bread with no problem, so you can continue to make peanut butter and concord grape jelly sandwiches for those kids who are trailing behind you, especially that one who keeps ramming the kid-sized cart into everyone else in the aisle. Please, go ahead of me so you can get your bread. My husband’s needs will take the backseat to your needs, because, well, that’s one way I can follow the Golden Rule here in the bread aisle of HyVee.” There is not just a helpful smile in every aisle, there is me, trying to follow the Golden Rule. Please don’t hear what I’m not saying. This is not a sacrifice for me. I love to move over and make room for others. My needs are no more important than someone else’s. Saturdays are my days to take it easy and not try to keep to a schedule. It’s my day of rest and I am so happy when I can make someone else’s trip to the grocery store easier. I think it would be amazing if we could all just realize that our own immediate wants (needs?) are no more important, possibly even less life-and-death as the next person. I don’t need the shortest line. I don’t need the closest parking space. I don’t need to pass the person in front of me on the interstate, because we both need to get where we’re going safely. So rosemary. I had rosemary on my grocery list today. It goes in the brining solution for the chicken we will grill tomorrow. I am standing in front of all the lovely fresh herbs at the HyVee. I know they are presented to us alphabetically in the display. Between the mint and the sage is where the rosemary should be, and yet, I made it to thyme. It wasn’t there. And then this sweet bearded man was there beside me, after me really. And he was looking for rosemary too. We were both bemoaning the fact that it was gone and I said, “We have two plants growing at home.” He said he had had a large bush in his yard but it hadn’t survived the winter. I told him I thought it was too tender of an herb to survive our winter in Omaha, and that’s why we grew it inside. Just then he espied one package of rosemary. It was hanging BEFORE the mint. My alphabetical mind just hadn’t gone there. And then, he said, “Well, you were here first. You should take it.” There it was: the Golden Rule in action! And I said, “No. You found it. You should take it. We can cut some from our plants.” And he left with the prize in hand and a smile on his face. And that was more than enough for me.