Mrs. HM is feeling guilty today, my friends. Guilty! Through no fault of her own! Guilty for losing on a $5 scratcher. That's not under her control, you know! It's the LOTTERY, for cryin' out loud! It's not like she can snap her fingers, or twitch her nose, and VOILA, a winner appears.
Friday I went in 10Box for crosswords and the new Tetris-themed tickets. The day was sunny, so I planned to get some out of each machine. With my recent rumpus/leg struggles, I took a cart from the corral to push inside.
A lady was scanning draw tickets at the right-side machine. She had her cart of groceries parked in front of the left-side machine. I do that, too, because of how the machines are arranged in a corner. I move it if somebody walks up looking like they want to buy lottery. I was not at all annoyed as I might have been with different circumstances. I had a cart/walker to lean on. The lady was polite.
"Oh. Do you want to use that machine?"
"I'm planning to use both of them, but you're fine. I brought in this cart to lean on, because me knees get sore when I stand. I'm okay."
"Here. Go ahead."
The Lady moved her cart over behind her, as I do when at the right-side machine. I went to the left-side machine, and scanned in my winners. We had a pleasant conversation about the new ticket. And how you have to watch those machines, because they will scan in to show how much you won, but they don't always give you the credit when you tap the screen. So you have to scan again.
I got two crosswords and two Tetris. Then moved my cart around to be out of the way, and wait for The Lady to finish at the right-side machine. She did, and moved to the left. We made our purchases. As I was putting the tickets in my purse, The Lady turned. She held out a $5 bill.
"Here. Buy yourself a winner!"
"Oh. Well. You don't have to do that!"
"I want to!"
"Thank you so much! I'll give it a try."
I felt bad. I don't need her $5. But she wanted to give it to me. It made her feel good. Who am I to ruin her happiness? So I bought a $5 ticket that I hadn't planned on.
It lost.
That's not my fault, right? I shouldn't feel guilty. But I wish I could have gotten The Lady some return for her do-gooder-ness.
6 comments:
But if you do good back, then she might have felt obligated or want to do something nice for you again and it just keeps on going forever. My point is, she needed to do something nice and maybe something happened in her life that was good recently, and she just wanted to pay it forward. You just happened to be on the receiving end. Smile and pay it forward to someone else someday. No guilt required. Ranee
Rae,
Yes, I'm glad I didn't refuse it, because that would have hurt her feelings. I always have some money in my shirt pocket, handy to offer is somebody is a little short on their purchase, or if a kid is asking to play the grabber machine next to the lottery machines. I always ask the parent/grandparent if it's okay, and hand a dollar or two the THEM, not the child. Nobody has refused yet. I love the grabber machine, but I don't stand around all creepy to watch! And I don't offer if a kid is whiny about it.
I agree you shouldn't feel guilty, but think maybe I would feel a bit guilty myself, though I don't know why, it was a freely offered $5.
River,
I think the guilt is because we feel like other people need this gift more than we do.
Never look a gift horse in the mouth and guilt is over-rated.
Kathy,
My knees prevent me from taking the money and running!
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