Ben and Me_ From Temperance to Humility - Cameron Gunn [45]
My tea kettle malfunction was clearly a product of bad karma.
Shortly before my problems with the kettle, I had been faced with an ethical dilemma and perhaps made the wrong choice. There is a young woman I see on the bus almost every morning. I take note of her because almost every morning when she steps on the bus, she announces to the bus driver that she has forgotten her student ID (on my local transit system, high school students ride free). I had noticed, of late, that a number of the bus drivers had dressed her down and told her, as they let her on board, that this was the last time. None, in the end, follow through on the threat. I’ve begun to wonder if she is, in fact, a student. I have waited, I must admit with shame, with some anticipation for one of the bus drivers to finally follow through on his threat not to grant her passage. On this, the first morning of my Frugality challenge, I was rewarded.
The bus driver in question, the gruffest of his number, refused to let her on the bus.
As I looked at the young woman, standing at the door of the bus, my inner Franklin raged in battle. On one hand, my curmudgeonly side enjoyed watching this young woman finally receive her comeuppance. Either her fraudulent bus riding had been discovered, or her poor morning preparations had been her undoing. “Serves ya right,” my judgmental inner voice screamed out. On the other hand, I saw that her face was red from the cold, and my better angels, those I hoped I was freeing with this course of virtue, said, “Go buy her a ride with your bus pass.” Before the clear winner could be found in my inner struggle, the man behind her, a frequent bus companion of mine, pulled out his pass and announced that he would pay for her ride.
It was then, I think, that Ben decided to punish me with the kettle.
I’d like to say that my inner struggle arose from a genuine uncertainly about what the right thing to do had been. But even if there was some legitimate dichotomy of opinion on the right choice generally, I knew what the right choice was for me. A smug, condemnatory righteousness should never win out (at least in my mind) over a generous heart. That it did, even if only through hesitation, meant that I had a long way to go.
Here’s the bigger problem. In this week of Frugality, I realized I had missed some of the point. Ben’s Frugality is not entirely about spending less money. I should have known this. Chris told me that Franklin was seeking more Samaritan (the good kind) than Scrooge. He wanted, through Frugality, to give benefit to others. Some commentators on Franklin’s course have noted the absence of any virtue like Charity. In doing so they had missed the point of Frugality, just as I had. This Frugality is all about Charity.
{ Beware of little expenses. A small leak will sink a great ship.}
I would like to say that I wanted the errant bus user to be taught a lesson, and I suppose that was true, yet “Scrooge” would have been the best word to describe my attitude on the bus. Ebenezer is me. One punch on a rider card and I would have benefited others with my spending, done what Franklin called a good for the day, and demonstrated a deeper understanding of Ben’s path to righteousness.
Ah, well. No sense in peaking too early.
If Tea Bags Don’t Work, Try Eggs
I am the king of the eleven-minute omelet. I’m not sure what the previous world record for the preparation, cooking, and consumption of the three-cheese omelet was, but surely I have beaten the record. In my quest to be frugal, I decided that I would replace my usual, aforementioned, and much-loved morning coffee and muffin with an omelet before I left for work. Healthier, wealthier, and wiser. It was positively Franklinian.
The problem was that I made this decision immediately after putting my two youngest children on a school bus