Migrated from LiveJournal / Dreamwidth
Has turning 75 made me more curmudgeonly?
A friend sends me a message saying her locked front door comes open by itself and asking if I can tell her what otherworldly entity might be visiting.
'Hang on,' I think, 'I get paid to do readings.' She hasn't offered. I feel mildly pissed off and don't immediately respond. Eventually I advise her to check the lock, remind her she can use her Reiki II to communicate with whatever being may be there, and refer her to one of my blog posts about how to clear entities.
She replies that in the meantime she has discovered the lock is faulty. (Didn't race to cancel the request though, I notice.)
Another friend's son is in pain from the extraction of wisdom teeth. She begs me to send him absent Reiki. No polite query, 'Would you have time?' It happens that I've got a very busy day. I tell her I'll try and send 'some quick zaps between running around.' She tells me he is having more out next day, so I'd better manage a few nore zaps.
'I taught her how to do that!' I think. 'Why is she putting it on me?' Perhaps I've been too willing in the past?
There are friends from whom I am more than happy to accept such requests — because they do the same for me. It's give and take. When it's one-sided ... well, I think I have finally reached my limit.
Comments left on LiveJournal post:
ReplyDeletecaptlychee
Nothing curmudgeonly about that. The older you get, the more valuable your time is. This is not because you have less of it, but because with the demands of work, children and (possibly) spouse gone there is more of the stuff to do for you than there was before.
Plus, possibly, it takes you longer to do the things you want to do and thus makes each second more valuable. To hell with these people wanting to h…what's the word I want? Horn in on your time. Yes.
If you've read this far you're wasting precious time.
snakypoet
For some reason, reading you is always a pleasure. That can't be a waste of time! Thanks for the input.
captlychee
That's because you steer clear of my Facebook rants.
snakypoet
Not so much steering clear on purpose as never happening to see them. However, perhaps I shouldn't go out of my way to search?
captlychee
Probably a good thing :) Some of my comments have caused some people to un- or defriend me. People do take Facebook very seriously, don't they?
Anyway, here is where I put the serious stuff. Over there you can see links I share, one from Roberta Guthrie today that is pretty good.
ratfan
Have to laugh at this person immediately thinking it's an otherworldly entity :-) This happened to my door and trust me, it didn't take Einstein to work out that the wood had warped so the lock wouldn't work. That took me and my landlord about an hour with a power drill to fix.
Also puts me in mind of a friend who used to be a nurse so was always being asked about medical matters by friends. The response, "Take a pill!" Fair enough!
snakypoet
Ha ha ha! Thanks for putting it in perspective.
ratfan
Or otherwise as tradition has it: The labourer is worthy of his (or her) hire!
snakypoet
True. Good reminder.