Thoughts About Cindy

Cindy turned ninety two weeks ago. It was just another day for her though. She went into the lounge and all the flowers, about 28 bouquets, that arrived from friends, family, acquaintances and associates, beautifully decorated her home. She asked one of her staff members, "have you ever seen anything like this?' She was certainly flattered to receive so many bouquets. He politely said no, although what he actually thought was 'yeah, at a funeral'.

She's the kind of person that basks in attention from others, whether strangers or familiars. Although extremely financially comfortable, Cindy is very stingy. Not just penny-wise, but actually stingy. Being from the snail mail generation, email is the only technology that she was prepared to adopt. She sends an email to Gwenyth, someone she refers to as her best friend: Hi Gwen! I haven't heard from you for a couple of weeks. Call me. That is how stingy Cindy is. What would it cost to make a phone call? A few dollars perhaps. Gwenyth read the email and thought, "how peculiar! I'm just going to ignore that for now. Maybe even say I never received it. Maybe she'll care enough to call me for a change."

Imagine living a long life, to be surrounded by people, yet still very much alone at the same time. One daughter tolerates her but the others are distant, physically and emotionally. Cindy said to someone, "the advantage of being old is you can always just say you forgot". People eventually show their true selves. Cindy decided to give Gwenyth a call two days later and said that she was waiting for her call. Gwenyth explained, "Oh dear Cindy! I completely forgot! I must be getting old. You know what that's like."

Every Wednesday evening, her lawyer takes her to a business dinner. One particular Wednesday, it was the birthday of someone that has grown on her. She is so thrifty that she invited this person to the business dinner knowing it wasn't going to be her expense! But... the circle is round. The lawyer called to cancel and that was that. Nobody is ever too old to learn a lesson.

People always say that rich people get rich by spending carefully. That may be true amongst other contributing factors. From an observation point of view, it's particularly interesting when somebody thinks they are clever and sly but actually the person they're trying to fool already has one up on them!

Cindy once gifted her admin person a huge box of candy. Firstly, it was a year old. Secondly, she's re-gifting it and thirdly, it was a gift she received from that same admin person! Even though it was silently and well received, you bet she is the talk of the town. Not in the way she likes to be though! It will forever be a mystery of what was going on in the admin person's head. Perhaps she thought, "maybe Cindy forgot". Maybe she thought, "at least I got my money back" or simply "cheapskate".

Is it not better to live a short life and go to heaven... than a long life and re-gift? Imagine being an attention-seeker but all you get is the wrong type of attention. What if the staff member, Gwenyth, the lawyer, the admin person or the guy that had grown on her, all secretly arrived at a conclusion about Cindy but entertains her because of her age... Almost as if they are waiting for her to kick the bucket. We came with nothing and we certainly shall go with nothing.

Ultimately people will remember how valuable you made them feel.