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March 21, 2008
Giving Credit Where It Isn't Due
So we've been using this rickety dinette at my house for maybe a year or so. It was cheap and originally purchased to be a quick replacement for a much nicer set I had that had big heavy, bulky chairs that were hard for the kids to move. I thought I'd sell the nice set, get some $$ and eventually reinvest in something nicer and more permanent. Well the selling thing never happened.
As time went by the rickety set was really starting to get on my nerves. It was severely craptastic. Suddenly it occurred to me that I should just fix the chair problem on the nice dinette, keep it, and 86 the annoying one. Brilliant, I know - too bad it took me a year to figure this out.
So today I fixed-up the chairs, it was a little more involved than just affixing gliders, but I'm pretty happy with the results. I decided that I would just put the craptastic set out on the corner for large trash pick-up tomorrow. I couldn't in good conscience sell it after all - I paid $99 for the whole set new. The screws keep falling out of the chairs and the cushions on the chairs are so thin that the chair screws poke up through them and stab you in the legs. It's seriously hideous. Pretty, but dangerous.
So I began taking the craptastic set to the curb. The first car that drove by stopped and asked me if I was getting rid of it. I hadn't even finished getting it all out there yet. I said yes and they said they'd be back in a bit. I kept my eye out for them as I wanted to be sure to tell them all about it so they'd know what to expect. I fully expected them to leave it there after I showed them all of the things that are wrong with it, and that would have been fine. But as it turns out she, a cool neighbor that recently moved in, wanted it anyway. She said she really appreciated me giving it to her and that she is a big believer of paying it forward - which she apparently decided I was doing with the dinette.
This made me think about the idea of paying something forward. I've always thought of that as kind of a random act of kindness that you do in hopes that the recipient of the act will commit another random act of kindness for someone else. I just really wanted to be rid of that nasty dinette set, I had no intentions of this being something good for anyone else. Actually I'm pretty sure she did me a bigger favor than I did her. Or maybe an equal favor at least, but it feels wrong in this case to be associated with the self-less giving that goes along with the pay it forward concept. Right??
Okay, enough pondering ... I need to get back to Planning. And reading. And to help with the reading, here is a lovely little reading aide ensuring I will never get any sleep for ... maybe for-ever. :::shudder:::
Pearls of "wisdom" by Jamie at March 21, 2008 02:47 PM
Comments
Well you did GIVE it away. You could have tried to get something for it, but you knew what it was really worth and you did not deceive. That's selfless, right? I don't know. I do see what you're saying though. When I first met my husband, he had so much crappy furniture in his apartment. I told him we would be throwing most (all) of it away when we moved in together. His response, "I can't do that, it's sentimental. [So and so] gave that to me." I tried and tried to convince him that they were just giving him junk so they didn't have to deal with it, but he refused to believe it. So to him it was selfless giving, and to the So and So's, it was throwing shit away.
Posted by: Mary at March 21, 2008 04:32 PM
Mary! Hmmm, now you're making me think about it a little differently. All I know is that I'm all kinds of happy it's gone.
I wonder what Rick will think about all of his stuff if he reads this (meaning, how I felt about giving my stuff away)?? :P
Although I doubt the stranger I gave it to is going to have any sort of attachment pangs to it because *I* gave it to her. At least I hope she doesn't, that would be weird. :P
Posted by: Jamie at March 21, 2008 06:15 PM
Agreed, that would be weird! Haha!
Posted by: Mary at March 24, 2008 04:14 PM
You are *totally* paying it forward. Not paying it forward would be using it to start a bonfire in your backyard.
Bonfires kick ass.
Posted by: Jenny, Bloggess at March 25, 2008 06:35 PM
Bonfires that are fueled by cheap metal and glass kick even more ass - that'd be one HOT bonfire. My table had zero wood on it. Let's face it, it was basically a playset. It really seemed to reach its full potential when the kids would put a bunch of fake food and fake tea party china on it. When we put anything more real than that on the table everything just seemed *wrong*. :P
Didn't anybody see the creepy Homer pic???
Note to self: do NOT change the subject for one sentence and put a small link at the very end of next entry. Or any entry. Okay good.
Posted by: Jamie at March 25, 2008 07:02 PM
Jamie: I suspect that your old dinette set was from another dimension, given its many unusual properties. I agree, you did pay it forward, because who doesn't want an interdimensional dinette set?
Shazbat.
Posted by: Dr. Ding at March 26, 2008 08:57 PM
Mmmmm . . . interdimensional furniture.
That's so awesome. I'm going to get the 8 year old inventor to start working on that one, STAT!
Posted by: Jamie at March 30, 2008 11:14 PM