He's Everywhere and Everything

I'm on my throne at The Coffee Shop this morning when Mr. Ubiquitous pulls up with a newish guy. Mr. Ubiquitous and I are both salesmen and we were discussing who is suffering more in this economic downturn. In my mind, at least, I won the competition. I was the Most Miserable, even though I'm not miserable at all, but I will admit to feeling a certain weird sense of contentment when I'm at the top of whatever heap I'm trying to get to the top of, even if it's manure or rusty, broken pieces of jagged metal, or a vale of children's tears.

The new guy started explaining what he was doing to make money. He's involved with something that is just this side of a Ponzi scheme and he's at the bottom of the pyramid. I'd say he might make money but he's probably going to get soaked and not with water. Every now and then Mr. U would toss out a red flag which was promptly machine-gunned out of the air. You can tell when someone has already justified something to themselves. His mind was made up. He did, however, seize on any little scrap of vague encouragement that he could use to justify his behavior. I bet his take on the conversation was that we were very supportive.

Mr. U was appropriate. H didn't say:"That's stupid," which is how you get a bull-headed alcoholic to keep doing what he's doing for ever and ever. He was cautionary, trying to look at the pros and cons of this scheme, to no avail. We're like children when we're new. We learn through experience. Nobody can tell us anything. We have to try it ourselves. Sometimes we watch what other people do and learn that way, but we never, never do what anyone says to do, unless we want to do it ourselves

Who am I kidding? I still act that way.