Yesterday, I called about an ad for a pet barrier I saw listed on Craigs List. It was on my route home and the price offered was an incredible deal. Just before leaving I get a call from the seller who tells me she has to go out but will leave the pet barrier outside of her door and could I please leave the money under the front door carpet? I do and it leaves me smiling at her trust via just a phone call. She lived in a complex. I called her later to confirm she did in fact get it.

I then stop in another area to visit a recently discovered mom and pop bakery/cafe where the owners know everyone by name. It's in a rougher part of town but I know it's reasonably safe as the regulars (several elderly people) often sit in the Café portion. The bakery products and food are incredibly good and made by the owner. I order some things just before closing and realize to my dismay - cash only.I dig through my pockets but only come up with a few dollars of change. They tell me I cay pay another day even tho' I've only been in that place 2 times previously. I insist on going to a bank machine and they said they'll wait for me until I return.

Outside a homeless man is mumbling to himself but doesn't ask me for anything but I ask him for the closest bank machine. He tells me he'll take me there. It's located a few doors away..a bowling alley with a pub attached. Now I feel a bit aprehensive as who knows if they'll find my dismembered body somewhere. Jimmy who has now introduced himself tells me not to worry he'll wait by my side. Now Jimmy is a frail 120 pounds, elderly and shuffles but I realize he appears to to genuinely want to help. When I use the machine he turns his back and walks me back to the bakery where I go inside while he waves goodbye. The owners know Jimmy and says if he owns a dime - he'll always pay it back. They question if he asked me for money and I tell them he didn't. They seemed pleased that he holds up his end of the bargin, that he's welcome there but he's not to bug the customers.

I leave with my purchases.Jimmy who is across the parking lot waves. I get into my vehicle and pull over to thank him again. I see him glance longingly at my the wonderful smells coming from my packages but he still doesn't ask me for anything. I tell him I goofed as I forgot I was supposed to go out for dinner and just got a phone call reminding me to meet friends at a restuarant. I'm lying. I finally convince him. Jimmy smiles a toothless grin and I'm amazed that all the while he still has kept his dignity despite his hunger and has kept his promise not to ask me for anything. Sometimes people in suits don't possess the same qualities he does.

While some may think myself, the bakery owners or that woman are gullible it's nice that some people still trust one another. I realize with irony I'm the one that wasn't being truthful.

What a beautiful report, Chrystal. Thanks for sharing your experiences with us.

On my first trip to Denny and Lee's I was browsing and this guy had about $100 bucks or so worth of magic and his Credit card did not go through, I don't know why. Anyway Denny told him to either send him a check or to come back and pay.

I said something along the line of that is trusting but I guess a regulae cutomer would not burn you. Denny stated that it was his first time in the shop.

There are way, way, more good people in this world, just the bad ones get the press.

It is like unemployment, there is 7% unemployment...well 93% employment is still pretty good. 4-5% of those able to work do not anyway, so IMHO the true unemployment rate is only 2%.

Just my observation.

NUMS

I'm trusting too C, then I mutter about it later.

Here is my observation Nums, if you are employeed then unemployment means nothing, if you are unemployed and wanting to work then unemployment is 100%.

(just to let you know the actual unemployment numbers are based on individuals actively looking for work. If they are not seeking employment they are not considered unemployed or part of the percentage. So when you see 8% unemployment that means that out of 100,000 people that wish to work 8,000 of them cannot find a job)

Work is WAY overrated.

Why in the world did work somehow become a virtue? We've built a society with miraculous machines to do work for us that hundreds of human beings used to do...and why? So we can work more?

The cool thing about living a philosophic life is to be able to question the most fundamental assumptions people have. And one of the most fundamental assumptions that our modern world makes is this: work is good. But why? Why do what a machine can do for you?

Unemployment might be an economic problem--I'll give you that. But why is it a cultural problem? Why should I care if my neighbor is lazy? Why shouldn't he be?

Yeah yeah, I know the argument: why should someone like Nums pay for the neighbor to not work. Well, why not?

There are way too many assumptions being made these days about the value of work.

Uno momento. Other than four months when I worked for a criminal company I've been out of work for over two years after my company closed down after I worked there over 23 years. My biggest problem is I'm 1. Too old 2. Too experienced 3. Made too much money before. I do NOT and have not collected unemployment but if I did it is something I paid into. I do NOT collect any food stamps, housing assistance, or jack $@$( from anyone. So if anyone thinks being unemployed equates to being on the back of the tax payer they are not always correct.

Santa, I wasn't making fun of you. I was serious.

You should find a good job, because you want and need one. More power to you.

But I still think that the fundamental assumption that work is a virtue is a questionable one.

My partner and I had a while for our next call and stopped in at a donut shop. Well, we've never been there, so she just gives us the donuts. Then my partner and I try them, enjoy them immensely. My partner wants to buy a few. So she gives us two more, each.

For some reason, people who make sweets and pastries and such always seem nice.

Drug dealers give samples away at the start as well. I think it's the same idea.

Nice story Chrystal.
“We're never so vulnerable than when we trust someone - but paradoxically, if we cannot trust, neither can we find love or joy” --Walter Anderson

FWIW, NBC is running a series of good news stories:

google

Read some here:

http://dailynightly.msnbc.msn.com/archiv......270.aspx

AS you have done everything, seen everything and know everything...I am only stating this as when someone posts a subject, IMHO you have done something similer. I would expect one of you vast knowledge to not make such a basic grammaticle error in spanish as to say "uno momento" which is gringo for 1 moment when in fact the spanish say "un momento".

Just pickin.

AS far as unemployment I stand by my original statement, there is always a rate of 4-5% so to add 3% to mix and still 92% are working. There are hundreds of jobs in the local paper every week, so you can't make what you were but you can make something.

I am fortunate to have and still make a decent living for 10+ years. When I had a real job I made $17.00 an hour plus had a company car. If I had to go back to work and I had to hit Mcdonalds for 2 shifts to make it, I would.


NUMS

Nums, you can think what you want but unemployment numbers represent people seeking work not those who are just not working outside the home. What exist in your head doesn't matter once it bounces off the inside of your skull. Oh, please post the name of your news paper that list 'hundreds of jobs' every week, I'd love to see it but I have a feeling it is the Bizarro World Weekly

Where I live unemployment is around 10%, I would work at McDonalds or the grocery store but they are not hiring. It should be noted we have a McDonalds 20 miles away and the next one is 45 miles away. $17 an hour, oh I remember starting out myself.

Ok

NUMS

I ended up at Wal*Mart. I would love to be a typesetter, graphic artist again, but at 53 years old, nobody's going to hire me. I'm getting adjusted to that fact.

It's a serf mentality. Historically, there have always been more poor people (read: proletariat) then rich folks (read: aristocracy). Ever since power structures developed in the neolithic, and later, when the Romans got expansive and peddled their monarchical system to the rest of Europe, power has been concentrated in a rather select group of citizens.
Note that paleolithic societies consisted of hunter/gatherers with a clan mentality, and that towns like Catal Huyuk and Jericho (some of the first human settlements) where rather egalitarian in nature. Power structures arrose with the concentration of produce; because these first cities now had concentrated produce, they also now had the ability to pay taxes to other cities. Taking the development of power structures into account, his still leaves roughly 6000-9000 years for our social structures to become somewhat ingrained through at least a continued evolution of these master/slave relationships.

That's exactly right. We're still stuck on sharing the work, instead of trying to figure out how to share the leisure.

But this is the wrong thread for this discussion. My fault. I go off topic a lot.

Apparently, Rasmussen polling found that 45% of Americans believe anyone who really wants to work can find a job.

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_c......_want_it

Mind you, back in January 52% of Americans believed this to be true.

Sixty percent (60%) of Republicans believe you still can find work if you really want it. But even GOP confidence is down 10 points from early January. Just 37% of Democrats share that view. Those lazy lousy liberals.

Oh, and hey, most Americans (53%) now think the United States is at least somewhat likely to enter a 1930’s-like depression within the next few years.

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_c......o_1930_s

On the brighter side, more good news stories from NBC:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032619/vp/29604041#29604041

Well, I'm hoping Home Depot starts hiring. In two years I've gone from fat high tech manager to a guy willing to work the fry station.

Good luck Santa, hope things on the employment front turn around for you.

An aside to any mod reading, if you can shorten those links I posted up above I'd be grateful.