Cynical Pinnacle

Cynical Pinnacle

   Sometimes, it's difficult to avoid being cynical or pessimistic.  Perhaps it is our culture, perhaps our upbringing; but at times, such outlooks seem to quietly sneak in without us being aware of it.  You lose your phone (one site says 113 smartphones are lost or stolen every minute), you drop your wallet or keys, you leave money at the grocery self-checkout, whatever.  It happens.  And your friends or family tell you to call the store, or call the police, or call lost and found...maybe somebody turned it in?  Then comes that cynical inner voice, that pessimistic whisperer in your head telling you, "not likely."  What are the chances?  It's gone, why bother?  How could you have been so careless, so in a hurry, so, so...stupid!  You, you, you...that voice never stops berating you.

   This happened to me when, yes, I was in a hurry and placed a few personal checks in my shirt pocket as I headed out the door.  After all, I was going right by the credit union so why not just throw them in there, get them out of the house.  The checks were for payments for a few things I had done; they also came to over $1,000.  Rush, rush, rush, I park the car, grab the shuttle bus, get my plane ticket, and have just enough time to stop at the credit union and reach in my pocket and...they're gone.  Maybe I didn't put them in my shirt pocket after all, I think, hurriedly checking my pants pockets.  Or my pack?  No.  Maybe my other hidden pocket in my coat (a long shot), you know, the one pocket that's never used.  But slowly, that voice began to emerge.  You dolt.  Why would you put something like that in your shirt pocket?  What were you thinking?  Or were you even thinking?  Maybe, just maybe, you never really put them in your pocket?  Or maybe they fell out at home, as you rushed out the door.  Or maybe, they were gone, somewhere.  And now, somebody might have your checks...and the bank numbers to the checks' accounts.  Who knows what could happen? (according to the credit union, crooks often print up new checks with those routing numbers and begin using that account; best to cancel everything, right now, they said).  But there was no time...my flight was leaving.

   Have you been there?  Your phone with everything on it, from addresses to photos to planners to playlists?  Dang, you really should have backed all that up?  It happens, from passports on a vacation to money that just drops out when you reach for that pen.  And try as we might, those voices keep popping in our heads, over and over, even as we backtrack every step, hoping against hope that somewhere along the way, we will find the missing item or items.  We rush back (if we have time) along our path; we make calls (could you check for me?); we pray.  But mostly, we fight sleep and the night with fitful thoughts...where could it be?  What's happening now?  Identity theft, would it be happening to me?  All those services, from Lookout to Norton (their computer security now extends to your phones and other devices), and even Life Lock, it would appear that our world outside was itself becoming cynical.  Who knows what's out there?  Who's waiting to cash those checks?  And after all is said and done, there's only one way to stop it...human nature.

   Wait a minute.  I can already hear those voices in your heads.  Who am I kidding?  Human nature?  Why human nature is that very voice that is telling you to cash those checks, or take that money from the grocery machine at self-checkout, or spend that wad of money you found in the parking lot.  But while that happens, and yes, phones and identities are stolen and accounts are hacked into and scams abound, I think overall, human nature has another voice, a larger one that is much more difficult to override...that of doing "the right thing."  Let me give you three examples, all personal ones.

   That grocery store story?...it happened to me, twice.  Like many of you, I'm rather used to using the self-checkout, and often do so to grab that occasional bit of extra cash when paying my bill.  Only I don't do it regularly, take out cash that is.  So on two occasions, I said "yes" to cash back, clicked the $20 button, waiting for my receipt and left...without the cash.  Getting home, I realized what I'd done, rushed back to the store and...someone had turned in the money!  I couldn't believe it (there's that cynical side again).  But when I saw it happen to another person (when I walked up to the machine, someone else had left their money...twice this happened), I also turned it in...no question.  It wasn't mine and likely, that person was now realizing their mistake and madly checking pockets and purses and wondering what could have happened to it?  And like me, they would likely be pleasantly surprised to discover that someone had turned it in and it was there waiting for them.

   Story two.  At the airport, one of the agents was bantering with me and saying how lucky we were to be in this city, at how honest people were here, and how the majority of people continue to surprise him (cynicism, see...it invades us all).  His story?  A cabbie (a cab driver, can you believe it?) found one of his passengers had rushed for their flight and left a bag (a bag) of cash on the back seat...$2,000 worth.  He stopped his cab, walked inside the airport and promptly turned it in to this agent (they were able to track down the person).  Now think back...would you remember your cab drivers name?  License number?  Description?  In Paris or London or New York or, well, anywhere?

   Story three.  My wife, after two miserable days with me semi-mumbling about how stupid I was and how much I had to do when I got back to clear up this mess and how many places I had to check once I returned (in the off chance that I would find those checks), well, she told me to call the shuttle bus company.  You never know, she said, maybe they fell out of your pocket as you grabbed your bags, and maybe somebody turned them in to the driver, and maybe the driver turned them in, and maybe they were sitting there in lost and found.  Yeah, right.  What were the chances?  Maybe I should go check the car first, then go home and thoroughly check the house and see if I could find them, and then maybe I needed to tell the check owners what happened and that they likely needed to place a stop order on the checks and watch their accounts, and maybe, maybe, maybe...STOP, my wife said.  Before we head home, just call lost and found...you never know.  So I called and the voice on the other end said that two lost checks being turned in sounded familiar.  Let me have a look, she said.  But no, nothing showed up on the computer, no names matched, no sign of the checks.  But then the woman who handled such things was on her lunch break.  Hmm, she said again, it's too coincidental because I seem to remember that number...two lost checks.  Let me look somewhere else.  I waited, and waited, and waited.  "Michael," she came back on, "I found them."

   Lucky?  Absolutely.  And I recognize that not everyone has such a happy ending.  But more importantly, it was a huge defeat for those creeping voices, a renewal of faith in human nature, a reminder that the larger voice hadn't really faded at all;  that despite the papers and the magazines and the news all telling us how terrible things were, and how many homes had been broken into and how many people had been robbed and yelled at, they were all deeply shoved into the minority.  Sure, it happens, and it makes the news.  But what happens more and more, everyday  --and doesn't make the news-- is exactly what happened to me.  The little or the large things, the people hearing the larger voice, the good side of doing the right thing...human nature.