Dreamer's World June 02, 2018 - Play It Forward

I got my new keyboard after work yesterday. Well, new isn’t the correct term since I got it from Craigslist, but it is new to me.

    I am very happy with the keyboard, but of course, there was a long story attached to it. The seller was a woman with 2 children who is preparing to move. Her husband had gone to their new home as part of his job, so the woman was left with 2 kids and her mother to help her out. She lives in a beautiful home in a very nice area of Northern Virginia. When Hal and I arrived at the seller’s house to pick up the keyboard, stand, and stool, we found that the power supply was missing. The woman said that I would take the items and she would contact me when the power supply was found, and then I could pay her for the items. I tried to pay her at the time, but she refused and said that she would either mail me the power cord and then I could pay her, or if she couldn’t find the power cord, then I could pay her a reduced price.

    Hal and I left with the equipment, but I was not really happy knowing that I had not paid for it yet. As we drove towards home, I asked Hal to call Guitar Center and they indeed had the right power supply for the keyboard. Since we were stranded in rush-hour traffic, I decided that we would grab something to eat when we had the chance and then go to Guitar Center. We finally made it home, the power supply worked, the keyboard sounds great, and things are all OK.

    I received a text from the woman who said that her husband might have inadvertently taken the original power supply with him as part of the first stages of moving. She offered to pay for a replacement power supply in her message. I answered that I had found a power supply, that it worked, and I told her that I would drop by her house this morning with the money for the items. I explained that I preferred to not leave things in an unfinished state, and that I felt guilty about having the keyboard and not having paid for it yet.

    I dropped Hal off at his job this morning and then I went back to the woman’s house. When I handed her the original amount we agreed on, she was floored. At first, she tried to reject the extra money that would have covered the expense of the replacement power supply, but I explained to her that I wanted her to have the original amount, and that she could never have enough cash on hand when planning and making a move. As she was holding her baby, with her Mother watching her, she broke down and cried. I told her that it was not problem, and that at some pint in the future when she saw a chance to do something nice for someone else, that she should remember this and then do something nice for that person. “Play It Forward” is what I told her to do, because good things always generate rewards, even if they are not immediately apparent.