Letters to the Editor
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The carpet guy
um, I don't really see the moral of the story. Sorry, don't see Eclesiastes in it either. Why do you have to end up "admiting" you did something wrong when you were just trying to rightfully retrieve what was yours?
You had the guy believing / wanting to believe/ getting away with believing that YOU were in the wrong here, hence he has a license to keep operating his business this way? Even Jesus overthrew the tables at the temple at his indignation with the sacrifice reap off business.
So next time, PLEASE put a complain with the better business bureau, after he gets a few complains he might get some kind of consequence that might make him rethink the way he does business, or at the very least know it is not so easy to get away with lies.
Also, once someone hands you a check it is illegal to have insufficient funds. You can mail the check to the District Attorney's Office and the person WILL be fined up to $250 for writing the check. (You have to deposit it first, get it sent back to you with the "insufficient funds" stamp from the bank, then you can make the claim)
So please Ann, do not let your faith stir you in the way of letting others walk all over you. You do not need to yell and become bullistic. Let your faith keep you calm and in perspective. But PLEASE do use the laws that are in your favor, for a reason. God cannot be made responsible for every single $50 task in our daily lives. He gave us a brain, a conscience and willpower, we can handle certains things on our own. If you are lucky to have the judicial system and other controls (better business bureau) on your side, use them!!! and then thank God afterwards for keeping you clear minded through out.
I don't think when Jesus said "turn the other cheek" he meant to really turn the other cheek for every single crook walking up and down the street. And I don't think he said to give them daisys on top of that either and say "I am sorry" after the slap too.
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My Prayer for Guys Like the Carpet Guy
I've found myself in those dark places a number of times; sometimes because I'm obnoxious- sometimes because I'm full of quite rightous indignation. When I'm lucky I remember my prayer - "God, give him what he deserves!" Of course I have MY suggestions.....
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I got it and I loved it
This article if very much in line with Anne's writing in her last couple of books. I found the real, human lessons and experiences shared in them very interesting and rewarding and useful, and I feel the same way about this article. Feel like using this as an opportunity to yell about how dumb religion is? Then this is just not for you. Get lost, and may God bless you. (She will anyway.)
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What Would Jesus Write
One thing, Anne, Jesus definitely wouldn't have done is write a story about the whole sordid affair after the fact for all the world to see.
I guess the relevant Biblical passage on this is, of course, to be found in Matthew Chapter 6, especially verses 1-6. But the whole chapter is knee slapper: your giving, like your praying, should be in secret. Few Christians actually practice this.
I myself prefer Acts 5:1-12 in this context. Peter, acting on behalf of Jesus, does not give Ananias and Sapphira flowers, Anne. Apparently, Jesus would whack the evil doers as if its part of the plotline of an episode of The Sopranos.
What would Jesus do indeed...
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Anger is an energy.
I think the mistake Ms. Lamott makes here is that she confuses the dictates of her religion with her own fears and her inability to deal with her anger. Sadly, religion is an all-too-convenient refuge for people who don't wish to confront uncomfortable feelings, particularly ones that might lead to actions that could potentially change the world around them. Small wonder that the party in power has embraced them so fully.
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Demonic Economics
Many people have figured out that there were other routes for Ms Lamott to choose from in her dealing with the carpet guy, including small claims court and the Better Business Bureau. She never said there weren't. She said she was stricken with rage.
"The door to the most primitive place inside me opened, then, where the betrayed child lives, terrified, wounded, murderous."
She flailed around in that hellish place for awhile, and then, just when he screwed her again with a bad check, she was released from her anger and started to laugh.
I recall a similar feeling when my rage at my ex-husband was finally spent. In that moment I would have signed over every piece of property we shared, just as a gift, I was so giddy with relief to be freed from my hatred. I guess practical people might say it was fortunate that the legal part was over and I had a little cash and some pretty good sheets, towels and dishes.
But I tell you I would have handed it all over to him in a heartbeat, along with some Safeway daisies, if that were the price of freedom. Ms. Lamott, that shrewd business gal, may have bought even more than her freedom. Some part of me chooses to believe that her $50 investment may help rescue the carpet guy from dark places only he can describe.
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chill on Anne, people
Right, of course, take him to Small Claims. Or not? If Anne was hurting for $50, she certaintly could have tried. But that wasn't the point. The point is how you deal with anger, how you deal with getting ripped off, how you deal with the surge of aggression that far overwhelms the loss of fifty bucks.
I have news for the self-righteous folks who wrote in telling Anne she was a fool, an idiot or even an enabler: Anne was never going to get that fifty bucks back. The world is not fair. America is not perfect. People cheat you, and then they get away with it. Anne's daisies are a little wacky, sure, but she saw something quite clear: this guy, a cheat and a con, was a tragic, flawed character.
She saw the humanity in the situation and let go of the fuck-you-fuck-them we're taught to believe in every moment of our days in this country.