I was sitting in my gas-guzzling SUV in a parking lot - listening to some tunes and keeping baby Sofia amused - while waiting for my wife while she was doing one of her alleged in-and-out stops in one of the many stores we needed to hit in preparation for hosting Thanksgiving when it happened.

I witnessed a great crime against humanity.

OK, it wasn't all that bad, but it does speak volumes about the human condition.

A normal-looking suburban woman, seemingly wrapped up in her own world, came out of a supermarket. After unloading her items into her car, she had two choices with her cart - 1) go 10 feet to the left and put it back in the place designated for carts or 2) go 10 feet in the other direction and leave the cart on an open parking spot in the lot.

Without a second thought, she chose the open parking spot. This meant that the shopping-cart kid had to retrieve it there and it also meant that another car would not be able to park in the spot until the kid realized someone didn't have the common courtesy to put the cart back where it belonged.

Why do people behave this way? I'm sure there was no malicious intent. I could almost forgive her if there was an axe to grind, but I highly doubt it. She was in her own world, working her own agenda, and everyone else can pretty much go to the afterlife down under (and I don't mean Australia).

It's the little things like this that lead to the medium things that lead to the big things that create the many figurative miles between each of us. In a world with cell phones, iPods, laptops and cars that give you directions ... well ... it's only going to get worse.

Arrogance may be rewarded in this day and age, but it is not a virtue. And it is no excuse for its first cousin, ignorance.