Story 117: A moment to be thankful.

As  I look back on a year of my life, and of the 125+ posts I have written I am reminded of the importance of being thankful.

Even though other people around the world do not share our holiday of Thanksgiving.  I'm sure many of you have things that your are thankful for.  

In the film Happy there is a Buddhist monk named Matthieu Ricard that practices a special type of meditation called compassion meditation.  He has practiced this form for many years and when MRI scans are done, a certain part of his brain lights up that is often associated with happiness.  As they said in the film, simply practicing compassion can increase happiness.  I believe that doing good deeds shouldn't be limited to just Thanksgiving but the whole year too, and appreciating what we have and being thankful i.e. counting our blessings by sharing the moment with others can bring joy to all.

Another character in the film Menoj Singh is a rickshaw driver in Kolkata, India.  He lives in a slum with his family, but he is a consummate optimist.  He doesn't focus on his poverty, but instead focuses on what he does have:  A home, close family, good friends, and while these things aren't always associated with financial rewards, the intrinsic is sometimes what can bring us more lasting happiness.

In keeping with these ideas, I am reminded of a story that happened to me when I was a freshman in college.  I decided to drive home with several female friends before the Thanksgiving holiday.   We were all excited about being with our families, having some time off from school work, and enjoying some real home cooked food.  Quite a change from SUNY Albany's Dutch Quad kosher kitchen.  Whose food was often too spicy or too bland.  In fact the food plan (UAS) could have meant "Use Alka Seltzer." 

We were in my friend Linda's car when all of a sudden the card started to shake violently.  The first chance we got we pulled over to the service road of the Long Island Expressway. At that time I had never changed a tire before and I was a little clueless. Even today if I had a flat tire I'm not sure if I could do it right.

The girls got out of the car and we all looked at the flat tire with shock.

Linda looked at me and then asked, "Do you know how to fix a flat?"  I looked up and just shrugged.  I looked around but no one else had a clue.  Then I saw a man start to walk to our car from his driveway.

"Do you need some help?" He asked.

"Yes, please." We all said gratefully.  

At this time in my life I didn't have AAA let alone AAA+, nor did any of have cell phones.  So his help was greatly appreciated.

He assessed the situation and then started to get to work.  He got a jack out.

"Do you have a spare tire?" he asked.

Linda popped the trunk and gave him the spare.  Fortunately for us it was in good shape.  In short order he had jacked up the car and put the spare on.

"You're all set." He said with a smile.

"What do we owe you?" we said with great appreciation.

"No charge," he replied. "it is the holidays you know."

We thanked the man profusely and then continued the drive back
Sure that we would now be home for Thanksgiving on time.

Life Lesson 117: Thanksgiving is a time to be grateful.  A time to be grateful for what we have not what we don't.  A time to help others and realize that we can fill up our bellies with food, but to feel truly fulfilled we should fill up our souls as well through doing the right thing without expectation of reward.  Finally, let's not forget that by sharing our good spirit with others in word, deed, and praise can bring joy to all.  As Mark Twain once said, "I could live a month on a good compliment."

May we all around the world enjoy the message of Thanksgiving, and take the time to be thankful. 

Story 113: Hey It's the cable guy

I used to live in Queens, New York, and back then for a period of a year and half I had free cable.  I really didn't feel guilty because the cable company had forgotten to turn my basic cable off.  It wasn't like I had every channel, or was actively stealing it as some of my neighbors were doing. They had splitters so they could access another neighbors channels. I merely did not complain.

Nowadays, I have seen that some of my friends have Amazon firesticks that are jailbroken.  It's amazing that they have every movie that's out there.  Although I am always worried that someone will arrest me for stealing content if I were to do the same thing.

Anyway back to my cable situation.  How I got the cable was worth discussing.  I don't know how it is in other countries like Brazil or France, but in America if you make an appointment for cable the companies are very vague when you try to schedule an appointment for them to come over to install it.  It goes something like this.

Customer, "When do you think you can install my cable?"

Time Warner Cable, "On Tuesday between 9 and 5."

Customer "Can you be more specific I have to take off work."

Time Warner "Sorry, we have to make a lot of calls."

And that's how it went.  They arranged to come over on a Tuesday.  The problem is I that spent all day in my apartment.  I felt like it was a snowy day, and was starting to get cabin fever.  I kept checking the clock and around 3pm began to call the cable company every half an hour to get an update.

Each time I called I got the same answer, "They're on their way."  It reminded of optimum's unmovers commercials but only more real.

Finally I got a call saying that they would be over at 8pm.  The problem is that I have neighbors.  If I had my own house it probably wouldn't be a problem but my next door neighbor Rose had quite a temper.

Rose had been through two husbands and I heard their arguments even over my upstairs neighbor's illegal barking dog.  It got so bad that a few months after my cable was installed Rose had to vacate her place to get away from husband number two.

Meanwhile the cable guys came at 8pm and they started to work on installing, but as you probably know cable involves drilling. Lots and lots of drilling.

After about fifteen minutes Rose knocks on the door and starts to complain about the noise.  I politely tell her they are almost done, but I know in my heart they aren't.

After about another hour or so.  Rose knocks again only this time she is starting to raise her voice above the drilling.  I try to reassure her they are wrapping up.  I apologized, but then I turned to the men and told them to continue.

Unfortunately They didn't finish until 10pm.  Well past the typical time that's considered acceptable.  Rose probably knocked a few more times, but I pretended I didn't hear her. To thank the men I gave them both bottles of alcohol. Although, I was probably a bit stereotypical because I gave the Russian sounding man a bottle of Vodka, and the Spanish guy some coronas.  They left happy. Rose didn't talk to me for a month, but at least I had basic cable.  Long after she moved out of the apartment the free cable continued.

Life Lesson 113:  Sometimes we gotta do, what we gotta do to get what we wanna get, and free cable is always better than no cable even if you have to hear some complaining long after it's a fact.