inconvenienced?

I had a science teacher in junior high who would say something that I still like to quote.  His name was Tri Tri Tran.  He would tell us that we had a lot of homework coming if we didn't shut up.  He would say "If you waste my time, I will turn around and waste yours."

What if we all had this eye-for-an-eye mentality?  What if everytime someone inconvenienced us, we turned around and tried to waste their time?  What a world.........

For example, my Dad had a roommate back when he was younger who had this approach.  Give him a ticket for parking the wrong direction?  He paid his fee with a HUGE piece of paper (bigger than a posterboard) that had all of the info a check would have. Basically, the person taking his payment had to key in everything by hand rather than simply scanning a check.  Imagine taking that to the bank!  What a hassle! Give him another ticket?  Three words.  Jar of pennies.  Have fun with that!

Another example, you know the junk mail you get?  Stuff that comes addressed to you which really has no point other than they want to sell you something?  Or that you have been pre-approved for a credit card?  Typically, as a "convenience" to you, they include an envelope where they have paid the postage.  You can fill everything out and then use that envelope to return it to them.  I have heard of people who will write a note and stick it in there that says something like.  "ha ha! I dare you to send me one of these again!"  They will then attach the sealed envelope to a brick or a cinder block and ship that.  The post office will bill the company for everything. 

I admit, I find this stuff hilarious.  I know how frustrating getting junk mail is.  I know how frustrating getting a ticket you don't think you deserve is!  Been there, done that. 

But you know who the real loser is in these stories?  The people pulling the pranks.  Sure, they were annoyed that people would do this to them, but then they went out and wasted their own time and money trying to get back at them.  The person taking the money to pay the tickets may be slightly inconvenienced, but what about all the time and effort it took to fill up a jar with pennies or write all of your information on a large piece of paper.  Additionally, the post office is just going to figure out how much total that the company owes.  A brick will be negligible once everything is added up.  That would only work if everyone shipped bricks through the mail.

On top of that, they didn't "get back" at the person who caused them the trouble; they are getting back at someone else who did nothing to them.

We all are going to have experiences where somebody else inconvenienves us.  In all likelihood, we will inconvenience someone else with our mistakes.  I know my Mom has covered for me when I made a mistake on so many occasions I don't even know where to start.

Yeah, things can be really frustrating.  And yes, some of these solutions are down-right hilarious.  But I hope we can go about life with a smile on our face. 

There is one group of people out there who do not deserve this though.  If they do something to you, you should absolutely retaliate, they are called "scammers", and ill discuss what to do with them next time.......