Lost, then found

I just wanted to pop onto here for a moment to discuss an aspect of human nature that's pretty cool.

Writers regularly examine emotions and people, carefully crafting a person that is not like us at all. How to do this? Imagination, empathy, awareness.

I frequently write female characters into my books, and they are tough, sensitive strong people. That's because what I see about women make me feel they are strong, not weak as many might think.  When I do presentations in schools, women strength is a normal theme, and the kids love how I describe how the female lion does all of the hunting while the male sits at home watching ESPN and playing with his pretty mane.

But today's blog isn't about that.  I see selfishness every day, particularly out of a certain political party, and sometimes I get down or angry when I see how some people just don't give a crap about those less fortunate than they.  And I tweet angrily about how the middle class is getting decimated in the name of greed.

So basically I've been a bit surly lately. 

But today I went out somewhere and lost something.  It wasn't particularly expensive, but it was worth the trip back to the store to see if anyone had found it and turned it in. During my fifteen minute drive, I was contemplating where I would go to replace the item. So at least the trip wouldn't be a waste.

When I got to the store, I went to the counter and asked if anyone had turned it in.

"Why, sure, honey," the lady said. "Here it is."  She reached under the counter, and sure enough, someone had turned it in.

Huh, I thought.

I hadn't expected this. I guess I'd forgotten that time my wife and I found a folded pile of twenty dollar bills in the supermarket parking lot. We discussed it, wondering how we could get it back to the right person. But I remember thinking, "this is important to someone. This could be an important piece of their weekly budget, and they might suffer without it." We returned it to the supermarket.

Yeah, I know. Did the money ever go back to the person who lost it? Did the person in charge of the Lost and Found just chuckle at how innocent we were, and chuckle evilly while slipping the bills into her pocket?  I don't know.  I sure hope not.  What I really hope is some dejected person drove to the supermarket, on a fool's mission to see if someone would actually do the decent thing. And then the flush of joy to see that his or her money was there, just waiting for her to claim it.

I sure hope that happened.

My daughter found some money at  her high school one time, and she turned it in. To our surprise, the school later sent her a letter commending her on her action. She was surprised, because she just knew it was the right thing to do.

I'm glad my kid thinks like this and I hope this is a reflection of her parents.

Anyway, to the unknown person who thoughtfully picked up my lost item and made the effort to make sure I'd get it back ...

Thanks, I needed that.

Norm

www.normcowie.com

(three ebooks for less than a buck!)