Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Today I refilled my karma bank

( please forgive the back picture apparantly the iPhones camera sucks donkey rocks for subjects closer than 2 feet ) So yesterday I got on the morning bus only to find that I had no money except for 10000 bills which the bus driver apologetically told me that he couldn't change. So I had a total of 60 yen in my suica card 140 short of the required 200yen fare. The driver half out of kindness and the other half out of the desire to stop me from holding up the line just told me that it was fine and to just pay back the rest next time. I managed to stammer a 'thank you' in Japanese and offered what small change I had. I sat down on the bus confounded at the level of trust and kindness that he showed, indeed he probably broke procedure in doing so. Upon deeper introspection I suspect that the rule of being on time with his bus schedule was more important to him than a mere 160 yen he would pay out of his own pocket. Anyway today while walking to the bus stop I decided to pay the driver back ( who knows if it was the same driver) to be honest a good part of me was thinking to just rack up the gain as good fortune and profit. But thankfully, some part of me still felt the urge to return the kindness. Now that I have, I realize that I have not been completely dessecated of humanity of the moral and ethical optimism and goodness that I once, nay, that we all once possessed before working at a über capitalist corporate bank drained most of it out of us. Turned us into dried out husks of zombie like money and greed driven vampires willing to sacrifice so much for gain. Of course, I generalize unfairly. It is mostly those of us at the bottom half of the ladder that burn those midnight hours and turn away friends and other healthy Human interactions for the firm. Those of us who like Dr Frankenstein, working away obsessed with our creation that we end up losing what we are trying to achieve. Maybe it's just me. But today, I am human again.

1 comment:

Planet Huddleston said...

This was hilarious Dave! I love the zombie-like husk analogy!

Chris