Reciprocity
Happy September! What on Earth do a turquoise necklace and seashells have to do with each other?
September 1993, I set out on a 2 week business trip throughout Arizona and New Mexico for the tuxedo company I worked for. The second day of the trip, I pulled into the parking lot of the Rio West Mall in Gallup, New Mexico. As I got out of my car, there was a 70's style white Chevy Suburban parked next to me with 5 Navajo Indians sitting inside, windows down, just hanging out and having a good time. So they call out to me..."Hey, are you from California?" I turned and smiled and said that I was. They said they wanted to talk to me, I mentioned that I had to go see my customer in the mall, a store called Tux & Formal and if they were still there when I got back that I would be happy to talk to them.
So 45 minutes later, they were still there. We talked, and one of the Indians said that he had something he wanted to give me. It was this handmade silver and turquoise necklace. The Indian's name was Irv, he went by the name 'Surveyor'. Surveyor said that he was going to put the necklace on me, say a little prayer and in 1 hour, I would have good luck. He also mentioned that they were Indians and that Indians are traders. He asked me if I had something from California I could give him in return for the necklace. He wanted some seashells. Since I didn't have any seashells with me, I gave him a colorful swatch card as an IOU for some seashells I would send him when I got back to California. He was very happy with that and we each went along our merry way.
As I'm driving along 1-40 heading east to Albuquerque with this necklace on, in exactly 1 hour, the AC goes out in my car. At least the fan worked, I thought. Not so bad in New Mexico when it's 85°F/29°C. When I got to Tucson, it was 115°F/46°C and the motor for the fan also went out. So it wouldn't even blow the hot air around. There sure were not the bottled water options then like there are now, so I was getting Icee's and Slurpee's everywhere I could. It was brain freeze city.
My AC is out, the fan doesn't work, when I finally get home to California (I lived in Northridge at the time), my kitten Twinkie had disappeared and was gone for good. My car got broken into and my cell phone which was a giant phone mounted in the car got stolen along with my sunglasses. My cordless phone died. My car got broken into again. My new pair of sunglasses got stolen. And I got a traffic ticket. To top it off, my Grandmother got sick and died...on my birthday (the 19th) no less.
This all happened in between the time I was given the necklace and when I sent Surveyor the seashells I promised for him. A matter of days. When he got the seashells, everything returned to normal for the most part.
All these things probably would have happened anyway, it's just very interesting how the timing coincided with this gift from a chance meeting with a perfect stranger. My car had 195K miles, my phone and sunglasses were in the car, my cordless phone was from the 80's. There was not much I could do about my Grandma or my kitten. I did get out of the ticket because the traffic sign had graffitti on it, though. Do we manage the karma of reciprocity or does it manage us?
Just an example of how we never know exactly what we will encounter on the road ahead of us. And to look on the bright side....I did make it home ok!
:-)))
Please!! NO Awards or Large Graphics...Group Buddy Icons are OK. Thank You!
Reciprocity
Happy September! What on Earth do a turquoise necklace and seashells have to do with each other?
September 1993, I set out on a 2 week business trip throughout Arizona and New Mexico for the tuxedo company I worked for. The second day of the trip, I pulled into the parking lot of the Rio West Mall in Gallup, New Mexico. As I got out of my car, there was a 70's style white Chevy Suburban parked next to me with 5 Navajo Indians sitting inside, windows down, just hanging out and having a good time. So they call out to me..."Hey, are you from California?" I turned and smiled and said that I was. They said they wanted to talk to me, I mentioned that I had to go see my customer in the mall, a store called Tux & Formal and if they were still there when I got back that I would be happy to talk to them.
So 45 minutes later, they were still there. We talked, and one of the Indians said that he had something he wanted to give me. It was this handmade silver and turquoise necklace. The Indian's name was Irv, he went by the name 'Surveyor'. Surveyor said that he was going to put the necklace on me, say a little prayer and in 1 hour, I would have good luck. He also mentioned that they were Indians and that Indians are traders. He asked me if I had something from California I could give him in return for the necklace. He wanted some seashells. Since I didn't have any seashells with me, I gave him a colorful swatch card as an IOU for some seashells I would send him when I got back to California. He was very happy with that and we each went along our merry way.
As I'm driving along 1-40 heading east to Albuquerque with this necklace on, in exactly 1 hour, the AC goes out in my car. At least the fan worked, I thought. Not so bad in New Mexico when it's 85°F/29°C. When I got to Tucson, it was 115°F/46°C and the motor for the fan also went out. So it wouldn't even blow the hot air around. There sure were not the bottled water options then like there are now, so I was getting Icee's and Slurpee's everywhere I could. It was brain freeze city.
My AC is out, the fan doesn't work, when I finally get home to California (I lived in Northridge at the time), my kitten Twinkie had disappeared and was gone for good. My car got broken into and my cell phone which was a giant phone mounted in the car got stolen along with my sunglasses. My cordless phone died. My car got broken into again. My new pair of sunglasses got stolen. And I got a traffic ticket. To top it off, my Grandmother got sick and died...on my birthday (the 19th) no less.
This all happened in between the time I was given the necklace and when I sent Surveyor the seashells I promised for him. A matter of days. When he got the seashells, everything returned to normal for the most part.
All these things probably would have happened anyway, it's just very interesting how the timing coincided with this gift from a chance meeting with a perfect stranger. My car had 195K miles, my phone and sunglasses were in the car, my cordless phone was from the 80's. There was not much I could do about my Grandma or my kitten. I did get out of the ticket because the traffic sign had graffitti on it, though. Do we manage the karma of reciprocity or does it manage us?
Just an example of how we never know exactly what we will encounter on the road ahead of us. And to look on the bright side....I did make it home ok!
:-)))
Please!! NO Awards or Large Graphics...Group Buddy Icons are OK. Thank You!