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Do unto others...
Have you ever lost something that was really special to you? When you did, did you think that maybe someone would be decent enough to put it in a lost and found or try and locate the owner?
Well, I lost something this past week that meant a lot to me. My great-grandmother passed away two years ago, and my grandmother gave me one of her scarves as a keepsake.
It wasn’t a beautiful scarf, but it had sentimental value. I wore it the other day to class and it fell out of my hair. My real disappointment came when, after a couple of days, I realized that whoever found it was not going to take it to Public Safety.
Isn’t that nice? Just take my stuff and feel absolutely no guilt in using it. This has really gotten me ticked off.
I found a beeper last semester just laying there in the grass, and what did I do? I waited until the owner paged the thing, and I called them back to let them know that it would be in Public Safety the next day. Why did I do this? Because I am decent . . . unlike some of you greedy people out there.
I was raised to do unto others as you would have done unto you. You know . . . what goes around comes around.
Don’t get me wrong . . . I was also taught to look out for my stuff because there will always be someone standing behind you to grab it up.
But . . . damn! You mean to tell me that I am surrounded by such selfish people that you can’t return something that doesn’t belong to you?
Let me repeat . . . IF IT DOESN’T BELONG TO, YOU DON’T KEEP IT.
Do you feel good when you use the cell phone you found in the library, or how about the organizer someone left in the cafeteria? And what kind of nasty person are you to take someone’s comb or hair pins?
Have we become a society so self absorbed that we don’t think about the other person? When you see someone drop some money, do you tell them or pick it up for yourself?
Think back on a time when something of yours was lost or stolen. Do we keep the things we find because in some perverse way we are being reimbursed for our lost goods?
We have become a society of takers. You don’t want it . . . then I will take it. I may not necessarily need it, but you never know.
Hello . . . am I alone here? When I worked in the library, I had to walk all the floors at night and make sure that everyone was gone. Sometimes I would find some personal items ACCIDENTALLY left behind by a patron.
I would put whatever it was (sometimes I found some really expensive calculators . . . one time I found a watch) in the lost and found. Why? Because I expect my fellow students to the same for me.
What, is that too much to ask? Is it too much to ask for you to be decent? Is it to much to ask for you to not think about yourself for a change? It’s not like I left you a gift or something.
What is wrong with you people? Everyday I hear about someone losing this or that being stolen.
What kind of pathetic loser are you to actually use the item that you found and didn’t return. What do you say when your friends ask you, “Girl, I really like that ring . . . where did you get it?”
Be careful what you answer, because you know if you say you found it and didn’t give it to lost and found, your girls are going to be checking their fingers every time they wash their hands in the bathroom.
I think my greatest disappointment in losing the scarf is the fact that my decency has gone
unrewarded.
So, what is going to compel me to return the next thing that I find? What is going to convince me that this notebook is IRREPLACEABLE, and while it may come in handy, means so much more to another person?
If you are the kind of person who regularly delights in the taking of another’s property, then I am ashamed to know you.
By the way, I hope you don’t drop anything--you never know who is behind you.
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