On Thursday when I wen’t to pick Layla up from preschool a very nice older woman approached me looking for the food bank. We chatted for a while and then she asked me for some spare change. All I had was 10 dollar bill, so I gave it to her. I couldn’t believe how happy she was. She was kind, and seemed as genuine as anyone else I had met that day.
Anyway, I had this feeling that I was going to need my ten dollars and sure enough the next morning I finally had the time to get to the library to pick up a book that I had been wanting for a while, it was finally available. When I got to the library checkout I remembered that I had an 11 dollar fine that I had not paid. Your balance has to be below 10 dollars in order to check out a book. I thought to myself “great see what I get for being a nice guy”. Anyway, the librarian asked for the next in line and I thought I would try to play it cool and pretend I had forgotten about the fine.
Sure enough he scanned the book and there it was. I had my wallet but they only take cash or check at the Library… neither of which I had at the moment. I had biked to the library and would not have time to come back and I was upset that I did not have that cash.
And then without me saying anything out of the blue the librarian looks at the fines and says “you know, you accrued these fines when we were updating our system so I am going to forgive them”! And that was that. I checked out the book and wen’t on my merry way.
I thought about this going home. Funny how life is some times.
Karma?
I have started tracking everything I give to homeless on a small app called spentable on my iPhone. I realized one day that I remember giving away money and for some reason it seems like so much, but I bet you that this is just my own made up loss aversion. I will budget this year for this and work within that budget. Instead of giving at church I will tithe on the streets. I think this will be more fun and it will feel good to share with those “not one percent”, and take the time to have a good conversation… which I have always felt is just as important as the money.
