|
She's in her sixties and all of four foot ten. Funny, scrappy, doesn't take anything from anybody. Tells a good joke and will laugh at yours even if she doesn't get it.
She's worked in the same bar/restaurant for over thirty years. Friends to those who are friendly, she'll also take you by the ear and throw you out of her bar if she has to.
She lives on her derisory hourly wage and tips, paycheck to paycheck, always has. To save up a thousand dollars for her is a really big deal. And that's what she had done.
Last week she went to an ATM so she could pay cash for a cheap dinner in a place that has only that. She slipped her debit card in and out, put in her code like she had done a million times before.
The machine thought for a moment, refused to give her her money and coughed out a receipt that showed her account balance as zero. Yes, it was zeros across the board. She had zero money in her account.
Confused, she ran her card again. Same thing, zeros. Almost panicking now she tried it a third time, same thing.
She had no money. All of her money, the thousand dollars she had saved, every dime of it, was gone.
She had planned to take a vacation next week. She wasn't going to go anywhere, but she was going to spend a little of that money putting a fresh coat of paint on the walls of her small apartment.
There was no payment for her meal that night. There will be no fresh paint for her little home.
Next day she called her bank. Identity theft had claimed another victim.
Faceless rubes, who would rather put their ingenuity and sweat into destroying people's lives than anything constructive.
She hopes she can recoup. Not sure if she can or how long that will take.
In the meantime, there I was the other night witnessing the end of these fools' transaction.
It was as if someone had whacked her with a two-by-four. She looked a little stunned and dizzy. Her usual spark was gone. She had lost a step. Her energy was sapped. She had to rummage for the smile that came so easily before, but could barely find it.
She went home early, shoulders bent just a little bit more.
I wonder if the cretins who stole her money care at all about the ends of their actions. I wonder if they're simply clueless.
I guess it doesn't matter; one is just as bad as the other.
Having the desire and ability to witness the end of our actions before we take them is called foresight. It's the sensibility to see how our actions and behaviors will show up in other's lives.
If my end of the teeter-totter goes down then another's will go up, and if mine goes up another's will go down. For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction, so pronounced Sir Isaac Newton.
Everything we do has an impact; makes a ripple.
When I send this essay out, how will it be taken? What are you seeing? What are you hearing? How will you react?
I can't control your reactions, and I can't know for certain what they will be, but I can take care to consider them.
We cannot live in a confounded ignorant bubble. Leaders certainly can't.
My hope for Missy, of course, is that she will get her money back and that these reprobates will be carted off to jail.
One teeter-totter going down please.
| 
