Don't worry, this isn't our [...my] home.

Ok, new game.  We're all going to pretend that I'm away on holiday in Scotland for a couple days.  I don't have to go back to work until Wednesday, so we won't have that to disturb our play.

Yeah, I had what became a glum day at work when I made a mistake that lost the company more than a thousand dollars.  Ha, that sounds so exciting, but, no, it just involved two gift cards, a professional crook, and too little too late from yours truly.  Get this, though.  Three (count 'em!) customers in the next hour and a half went out of their ways to be honest.  I wanted to kiss each of them.  One came back in the store and handed a dollar bill to the cashier.  "Your ones are sticking together."  A couple returned with their receipt explaining that they hadn't been charged for those two memory cards.  A lady told me to ring up this empty box because the my coworker had taken out the toner and installed it already.

How is it that people are honest?  I completely understand when people steal.  After the theft, one of the customers asked what was up with that suspicious customer?  "Well, I'm pretty sure she stole such and such."  She was surprised as all customers are when I tell them why we keep the ink behind the registers now.  They say that's unbelievable, but I disagree.  Our natures are selfish and crooked.  Parents and society can do their best with what they've been given, but some people just stay the way they're born.  My mother says, "Don't be surprised when pagans act like pagans."  "Pagan" is a very harsh term, and Mom just means to say "unbelievers," "people who don't have Jesus."  What about people who don't have something better?

See, what I don't get is, why aren't more people thieves?  Is the answer somewhere near personal standards, finding value in more than just things, respecting others and their property?

I've come to something.  I think that, because I've been inundated with the truth of the depravity of mankind, I know that man is not inherently good.  It surprises me when people prove me wrong, but, I'm figuring out that I don't give man enough credit.  (It's really prideful of me, actually.)  While I can't bank on people being good, I know that they are still created in God's image and, the way I see it, they still have some good in them.

I sound like such a Christian snob right now, and it makes me sick.

My proposed solution?  Stop thinking that I and my redeemed brothers and sisters are better than everyone else!  I am sorry for having such low standards for others, and, I know that this doesn't mean I should trust everyone and that everyone's perfect, but does mean that I can't believe that everyone's full of lies.

I've been seeing the yin yang in my head these last few minutes...

I do have a good story, though, about good people and things values and good feelings.  Yesterday morning, a fella came in to see about getting some raffle tickets made.  We do those in our copy/print department, but I showed him these do-it-yourself pages, too.  When you get these home, you can go to this website and download the template for your computer and fill in whatever information you want, see?  In fact, let's pull up the website here on our store computer and check it out before you even buy it.  After checking out the template, he was convinced enough to buy the tickets.

When he came in again today, I knew that I recognized him, but I didn't know from where.  I remembered everything when he showed me the box of tickets he bought.  He still had some questions, so we pulled up the template again on a different store computer.  The one yesterday didn't show all that we needed to see, but, today, we were able to print out some samples so the gent could know where to put his info.  He was pleased and left happy.  A half hour or so later, I was working on a project in a different part of the store.  The same dude comes to me and says, "Hey, thank you so much for all your help.  You have no idea how much trouble I've been going through to get this.  I appreciate it so much.  I should... I should buy you a Christmas present!"

Mission Accomplished.

I'm a task-oriented person, and I find flow and I do well when I'm working on projects with my hands or my mind, but my heart loves it when these things happen.  Making a customer's day makes my day, done and done.