Boy Scout Redux

It's been a long time since I was a boy scout and had to live by the "do a good deed daily" spiel, but today I jumped back on the bandwagon a little bit.

I was at a gas station in Methuen filling up the blue bomber's tank when I noticed something placed on top of the pump. It was a wallet.

A lesser man, who lacks the boy scout ethic, might have shouted something like, "Woohoo!" and started digging into it. I, however, let it sit where it was until I finished my business. I figured the owner would come back for it and I would give him time to find it on his own. When I finished and no one had come to claim it I took it off the top of the pump and brought it into the station. I then gave it to the clerk at the register and said where I found it and bought myself a soda. A small reward for my good turn, maybe... or maybe I was just sleepy and needed some carbonated caffeine.

My wife (who is home sick today, the poor sweetie) reminded me of a situation where she left her wallet at a gas station just before we were to fly out to Wisconsin to visit Mike and his family. A kind stranger whose name was almost the same as that of the guy who wrote The Shining (it was different, but similar) found it and returned it to her. The Mrs suggested that possibly my heroic action this morning was a way to refill the karmic gas tank after burning off some of our karmic credit in that prior instance. Note how I mixed my metaphor there. My high school English teachers would be proud as a bear shitting in the woods. (see, I did it again only this time I did it ironically!)

So there is the great story of my good deed for today. There too is my lame attempt at making something silly and simple sound grand and heroic (I've used that word twice, get it?) Were I to add a tag to this particular update I would use a word like, "overblown". Or perhaps, "retarded".

I hope the guy finds his wallet and I hope that all of his things are still in it.