This week the same clerk as last week was at PLC. I told her she hadn’t done a good enough job putting in my numbers. I didn’t win so I couldn’t buy her that cup of coffee I promised. I told her to do a better job of entering my lottery slip this week. She laughed and said she would if she could, but she had not trained on how to do that.
Then we talked about coffee. I don’t have a clue how we went from lottery tickets to coffee; we just did. We talked about all kinds of coffee. Good coffee. Bad coffee. Coffee with too much stuff added to it. Coffee with nothing but coffee. There is dark coffee and medium coffee and mild coffee. And one coffeehouse chain has a “blond” coffee. I ordered it – it’s dark brown just like other coffee. And we talked about the people we knew who drank their coffee this way or that way and only had coffee at this time or another. People who can’t read without a cup of coffee in their hands. People who can’t do anything at all with a cup of coffee in their hands. Who knew there was so much to say about coffee? Or there was so much individuality invested in coffee.
People get really really touchy about their coffee. “You must try it this way.” “This is the only proper way to brew the coffee.” “You cannot, cannot, cannot drink coffee after this time of day.” I sometimes think friendships can break apart because of coffee. Yep, we can get really really evangelical about our coffee.
And don’t even get me started on tea. Hot tea – and my dear friend shakes his head in sorrow. Iced tea – and my other dear friend rolls her eyes. Sweet tea, which is not, let me repeat, not sweetened iced tea. Sweetened tea you add sugar after it is cold and you never can get it sweet enough and it just doesn’t taste right. Sweet tea is made sweet before it is made cold. And it is wonderful. It should have its own word – sweettea.
Hey, I made up the word Lotteryist, I am making up the word sweettea. And when it come to sweettea I do not apologize for being an evangelist: make it right or don’t make it at all.
And so from coffee to tea to spending lots of lottery money on stuff. Could I get evangelical about the proper use a lot of money? Assuming, of course, the clerk does her job right and someone in my town wins a lot of money, could I become one of those people who judge others because they don’t spend their money the way I think they should?
Yes. The answer is yes, I could become very judgmental. Let me be honest – I am very judgmental.
A great resource should be used for great good. That’s my take on things. I am not talking about, for instance, a piece of art being less important than lunch for homeless people. Art affects everyone for all time. Lunch keeps someone alive for one more day. Both of these are good. What I am talking about is selfishness. Using a great resource with no good at the end of it.
About a hundred years ago a very wealthy couple in Washington DC held a dinner party for ten of their friends. Twelve people sat down to eat a meal that cost over $40,000.
$40,000 dollars in pre- 1920 dollars. $ 40,000 dollars for twelve people.
Everyone at that table is now dead. I still judge them. It was their money. They could spend it as they willed. But that was foolish. I even call it sinful.
It follows that if a great resource can be used for a great good, a small resource can be used for a small good.
Even if I don’t have the numbers for the big lottery win and can do big good things, I still have my nickels and dimes and can do small good things.
I can take a Walmart sack with me and pick up litter on my morning walk. That wouldn’t cost anything. And I clean up the street and make two uses out of a single-use sack.
I can buy crayons for the local Head Start.
I can take clean socks to the homeless shelter.
Little resource, little things, big help.
We all have little resources for little good things that add up to big good things. I’m going to pour myself a cup of plain black coffee and think of little good things.