Prayer of Saint Francis

"Lord, make me an instrument of Thy peace;
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master,
grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
to be understood, as to understand;
to be loved, as to love;
for it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life."
Amen.


These are words to live by when you find yourself surrounded by angry people asking things of you that you cannot give them because you have no control over the outcome of the things they are asking you to give. Tonight was a night to remember.
House management has taught me the importance of patience as well as the necessity of allowing things to hit you and roll off.
As I stood at the entrance of the lobby with a basket of hearing devices during intermission a growing group of angry people surrounded me complaining about the sound. After calmly explaining why there were inconsistances in the sound (it's preview week, the production staff is still working out kinks) and then continuing on to let them know it was a work in progress (did I mention preview week tickets are cheaper because the show gets fine-tuned during this week?!) and not something I personally could control (since when am I a sound guy?) I found myself surrounded by an angry mob (thank goodness we don't allow people to bring pitchforks or torches into the theatre). I then went on to calmly explain who they could contact to complain (I'm in house management yo, I can't do shit about the sound!) but sadly they were out for blood. In their minds because I was in charge of the hearing aids I must have some control over the sound. It was quite frustrating to repeat myself over and over only to be able to say "I'm sorry" because I could not change anything for them. Multiple people really tore into me tonight. One man went so far as to find me later just before Act II began and yell at me again and again at the end of the night when he asked for my name so he could call the head man and complain.
Thankfully there are beautiful, understanding people in the world as well. I had one gentleman come up to me after the performance and talk to me. He had been trying to get a hearing device in the midst of the shitstorm and I had desperately tried to explain to him the way the headsets work over the screaming voices of the other disgruntled patrons. He commended me for keeping calm and being patient. He even told me I deserved a "gold star". Thank you sir. You are the reason I get through the days...well you and those two handfuls of peanut M&M's I just devoured. But really, I do still love my job, even when people treat me like a punching bag.