This box of old letters made its way into my car the other night after my sister's birthday gathering. My brother Danny, who does home clean-outs, found them in someone's basement and that night handed the box to my husband who set it on the backseat of the car while I was still inside saying The Italian goodbye.
Dated back several decades, Danny thought perhaps I might like to read the letters. Had I seen him hand over the box to hubby, I probably would have nipped it in the bud and said no thanks, no time, not interested. (I do realize
my brother was just being thoughtful.)
Once home, I briefly leafed through a handful of the letters - dozens written between a deported military soldier and his woman in Minnesota - yet it felt way too personal to even read through one, so I placed them back into the box. Besides, did I actually care about two strangers and the pages of details they shared? As well, who has extra time to sort through so many letters? I have enough paper on my desk to line up between here and California!
The next morning, I texted my brother to say thanks-but-no-thanks and what did he want me to do with the box of letters? Did he want them back? Perhaps he would like to get in touch with the family of these strangers to see if they wanted them? Danny said no, the letters are old - just go ahead and recycle them.
It took 4 minutes for me to consider it felt odd to simply disregard someone's personal property by dumping them, and that maybe it would be nice for me to find and contact the family who might be interested in having the letters. Then it took 4 seconds for me to heed Danny's advice and walk the box out to the large recycle bin in our garage. No-no-nope, I do not need or want this project.
Sorry, folks ... not my family, not my letters, not my business, not my soldier, not my issue, not my project. Please don't add stuff to my to-do list. Someone somewhere sometime saved and stored those letters for all these years in some house, yet never bothered to pass them along to those who would be most interested. Why should it be my project? (My brother also didn't want the project either, so ...)
Saying no. Have you ever taken over someone else's issue, problem, dilemma, project, work, physical item? Perhaps they didn't finish. Perhaps they couldn't do it, wouldn't tackle it, lost interest, or didn't want it anymore. Maybe they pawned it off on you on purpose. So then why did / should / would you have taken it over?
Not trying to seem mean or uncaring here, snippeteers, but let's be careful to not get sucked into those types of situations, be it at work, at home, in the neighborhood, in a group. When someone doesn't finish something, whether they weren't interested, too lazy, or for whatever reason, why should we take over?
Two letters (and not the handwritten kind in envelopes) ... just 2 letters - N and O. Not your issue, not your problem, not your project, not your circus, not your monkeys.
No.
