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Horsey Humanitarianism
Jun. 14th, 2007 12:24 amSo, there I was at Meijer. The checkout lane had moved along nicely and I was packing my bags into the grocery cart. While turning to deposit a few more into the cart, I caught a glimpse of one of the Meijer 1¢ horsey rides for kids. It, in turn, spurred on horsey ride related thoughts... riding one of those when I was little and how much I liked it, Emma's first ride on one, and for those of you who are uninitiated in putting toddlers onto said horsey rides, those nice folks who leave their extra pennies on top of the money drop slot for kids (or harried parents with no pennies on them) to enjoy. A toddler simply doesn't forget about the horsey just because you've got no copper.
These mysterious penny donors always warmed my heart. It's a wonderful, selfless thing to do and it makes someone's day that much nicer, be it parent or child. Most of the time I've had pennies of my own to spend, but once or twice I've been spared a saddened child by the good penny fairies.
So here I am musing over these thoughts as I wheel my cart past them on my way to the door, to repack the bags into the car and make my way home, when suddenly it hit me: Psst, hey, you have some extra change in those pockets today don't ya? Umm, yeah, but oops, lookie there, you're already past them (by about 2 feet) oh well, maybe next time.
This little internal conversation made me stop in my tracks and literally re-think what I had just said to myself. Was I actually spending time trying to talk myself out of doing something nice? Why? To save myself time? Money? Well I probably wasn't saving any time since I was now standing stock still in the aisle analyzing my thought process, and it would have taken less just to take the two steps and drop the change already. Money? Well it may be a little tight, but 2¢ surely couldn't kill me.
Why was my mind telling me to just ignore the generous impulse and keep going? Worse yet, why are humans seemingly programmed that way? I know I'm not the only one who's mind told them the same thing or that horse would be buried in pennies.
A bit puzzled over my crazy brain, I made my way back to the horse and plunked down my extra pennies for the next toddler or harried parent to enjoy. I left feeling much better and with a conviction to pay more attention to my thoughts in the future -- it seems they could use an oversight committee.
These mysterious penny donors always warmed my heart. It's a wonderful, selfless thing to do and it makes someone's day that much nicer, be it parent or child. Most of the time I've had pennies of my own to spend, but once or twice I've been spared a saddened child by the good penny fairies.
So here I am musing over these thoughts as I wheel my cart past them on my way to the door, to repack the bags into the car and make my way home, when suddenly it hit me: Psst, hey, you have some extra change in those pockets today don't ya? Umm, yeah, but oops, lookie there, you're already past them (by about 2 feet) oh well, maybe next time.
This little internal conversation made me stop in my tracks and literally re-think what I had just said to myself. Was I actually spending time trying to talk myself out of doing something nice? Why? To save myself time? Money? Well I probably wasn't saving any time since I was now standing stock still in the aisle analyzing my thought process, and it would have taken less just to take the two steps and drop the change already. Money? Well it may be a little tight, but 2¢ surely couldn't kill me.
Why was my mind telling me to just ignore the generous impulse and keep going? Worse yet, why are humans seemingly programmed that way? I know I'm not the only one who's mind told them the same thing or that horse would be buried in pennies.
A bit puzzled over my crazy brain, I made my way back to the horse and plunked down my extra pennies for the next toddler or harried parent to enjoy. I left feeling much better and with a conviction to pay more attention to my thoughts in the future -- it seems they could use an oversight committee.
