The Check is in the Mail

Devious:  Deviating; not straightforward or honest, not frank; not standard. 

I have a couple of nieces.  They're good kids and I love them, but we don't interact much, partly as a result of some extreme distance and partly because my sister and I are traveling in different directions in our lives.  I received a form email from one of the girls this week asking for a donation to support her efforts to raise money for American Cancer Society.  Good for her - this is a damn sight better than asking for money to fund a trip to Europe or for new band uniforms, but the email came with no personal salutation which annoyed me slightly.  The real stick-in-my-craw is that my sister still owes me $100 for a TV that we bought for our parents as a house-warming gift.  We agreed to split the cost of the TV if by "split" you mean "she said she'd pay for half of it but she's never sent the money."  In fact, a couple of times she's made jokey comments about not having sent me the money, if by "jokey" you mean "she thinks it's funny but I don't."

I don't really care that much.  I'm not losing any sleep over it.  It's not something that I would do but it's not like I'm all that wonderfully ethical and considerate myself.  I do try to make my word my bond.  If I have a debt or a commitment I try to honor it.  I would never say I was going to pay for something and not pay for it.

Now I'll say this - my sister is back in The Old Town doing a hell of a lot of work for my parents while I'm not doing that.  I don't begrudge her the money.  In fact, I've said she can have anything and everything she wants of my parent's possessions as a thank-you gift, when the time comes.

Initially, I was piqued and I buried the email request in an unknown folder.  As I reflected I saw this wasn't the way to play things out, especially because it isn't my niece's fault that her mom is stiffing her uncle.  In as much honesty as I can muster I will say I had completely forgotten about the money and held not a whit of a resentment about it.  My sister can get a little funny about money, in my opinion, one of those people who profess with the mouth that it isn't important but demonstrate with the actions that it is indeed so.

In a flash of brilliance the solution came to me in my Quiet Time this morning, proof positive that my Quiet Times need some serious, serious work.  I sent the following email to my sister: "How about you give her the TV money and that'll be SuperK and my contribution?  I don't have a check book over here and it would take me 100 years to figure out how to mail it back there if I did."

Devious is as Devious does.