Helping Others Gone Bad
My cousin called me to ask for help. She’s moving into a new apartment, wasn’t going to be in town when her furniture arrived and asked me to meet the movers. She said they’ll be there by 10AM tomorrow and it’ll only take a few hours.
I had a lot of work to get done, but, I wanted to help her, so I said yes. The following morning, as I’m getting ready to leave, I get a call from the movers saying they’ll be ½ hour late. As I’m running a few errands, I get another call from the movers saying they’re a little lost, so it’s now going to be an hour. An hour later I get another call saying they’re lost. I give them directions as I discover they are actually an hour and a half away. By this time at the apartment. I also discover that the battery on my cell phone is running low and I don’t have my charger with me.
I live a little over ½ hour from the apartment, so, running home and back seems silly. I have no more errands to run, so I take a walk around the neighborhood. I return about an hour later, get another call from the movers saying they got lost again, I once again, give them directions and learn they are still an hour away. I sit down and meditate. They finally arrive at 12:30PM.
The driver states it will take a little over an hour to unload and set up everything in the house. We finished at 6:30PM. The driver was right, it took a little over an hour, in the scope of a week, month, year or millennium.
Now, here’s the thing. I am very well aware these type of favors can go this way and yet did not prepare properly. If I had brought my charger, my guitar, my lyric book and a few other choice items, I could have been a happy camper, so, I really have no one else but me to blame for any misery I experienced. I was a boy scout (yes, truly, I was), I know how to be prepared and yet I didn’t. Another learning opportunity. I’ll bet dimes to donuts I’m better prepared the next time I’m asked for one of these types of favors.
In case you’re wondering, these type of favors is anytime someone asks to use your time for something that must get done in a single day where how long it takes is not in the hands of the person asking the favor, so, when they tell you how long it will take, they really don’t know. I don’t mind helping, I just like being clear with myself what’s really going on and being prepared for that.