Discovering The Minefield

When the Bush administration was assembling the Coalition of the Willing, a disputed story was send out by UPI which stated that the North African nation of Morocco had offered to contribute monkeys towards the war effort. The purpose of said monkeys was for clearing minefields. Either the offer was not actually made or it was and we declined it. Either way, it didn't happen because finding and clearing land mines the cheap way tends to produce grisly casualties, and no one wants to see monkey casualties. I was reminded of that story when I started thinking about various perils in life which we unwittingly discover to our own detriment but to the benefit of those who come after us.

Recently, I went to a local convenience store to make a purchase. It was my intent to pay with debit card. Once I had brought my selection (one which by its nature could not be put back) to the register, I was advised that the system was in the process of re-booting, or some such thing. The point was that the card would not suffice, and neither would the amount of cash I had on hand. I resigned myself to withdrawing cash from the store's own ATM, thus committing myself to pay money so that I could access my money.

While I did this, the clerk busied himself making a sign which alerted customers to that which I had just learned at the cost of a convenience charge. I won't deny I was unhappy that it took my fate to remind the clerk of what he should have already done prior. Sure, it was the very definition of trivial, so I moved on, but it will happen again just as it happened before. I remembered immediately the annoyance I felt one night in college when I lost a relatively substantial sum in quarters acting as Galileo (and what happened to him?) to the new idea that the one washing machine I selected was out of order

As I said, I know full well the relative insignificance of this unpleasantness. It's just one of the many irritations which comprise part of the cost of living. This one is partly assuaged by the knowledge that someone is better off for my inconvenience, but not much, considering they're unknown to me and can't thank me (whether they would choose to or not). Why do I think about it? I suppose it's natural to do so. Why express it when people generally keep such things to themselves? I guess it's just because I'm an empathetic guy.