It's All For Trade

I went to a three day music festival. There was free day parking, so each day I drove from my hotel to the festival. The way it worked was that you parked the car and walked through one entrance into the festival grounds, then through another entrance to the concert area. On the festival grounds, you could have your own food and drinks, but in the concert area, this was not permitted, so you had to go through two screening stations on the way in to the concert. The first two days, I grumbled that I'd have to buy beer and food. But the third day, I crafted a nice device. The woman at the second screening station was yelling "No outside food or drinks!" as hipsters crowded the security guards' lanes. I went into her lane on purpose. I procured from my bag for her an apple. "Will I have to toss this now?" I said. "Uh-huh." I tossed the apple in the trash can in front of her, then quickly feigned to realize myself and said "I should have asked you if you wanted it!" as I opened my bag for her to inspect the contents. I had three bags of pretzels, two beers, a cheeseburger, and a burrito in it. She waved me by. I had successfully traded my pawn for a backpack full of food. I didn't think about it too hard, but the pleasantry occured to me that none of it really mattered and that was why it was important that she let me through will all my food. Because who cares if I eat my own food and drink two beers! I'm not gonna end up getting in a fistfight or throwing up on the stage or something.

After the festival was over, I was broke, so I went to visit my dad, whose girlfriend I don't like. I asked him if I could borrow some money. I hadn't been very nice to his girlfriend before. He said that yes, I could borrow some money, and he would write me a check in a few days. Then he said he wanted to buy a piece of jewelry that I'd designed. I gave him the necklace and asked him if he could pay for it on my website to get the traffic up. He said he would pay the $55 on the website later in the day and I gave him the necklace before he paid for it. Then he asked if I needed some cash, and I said, "Yes; I'm desperate," and he said, "OK," and handed me $40.00. We talked for a while, and when I left, I said, "Don't forget to pay for the necklace today!" and he said, "Okay," and I said, "Tell your girlfriend I said hi," and I was thoroughly satisfied with the trade that had transpired.

And on the same level as trading an apple for fast food, human interrelationships to me are about that important.