In all the years I have been coming to France today is the first time I have found paper money on the ground. I’m not sure if this says something about how the French are with cash, or if I am not the earliest bird each morning. But there it was on the street. A nice fat, juicy twenty euro note lying folded on the ground. At first I thought it must be a fake… one of those advertising things made to look like cash. But it was the real deal.
A few years back I made a commitment to myself. Found money always goes back into the pond, as soon as possible, in the form of a gift or gifts to someone in need. It’s not a perfect system, but is the best I have come up with. It was the result of realizing that whatever I found, someone also had lost. To be honest, it always makes me a little sad. Today’s twenty might have been part of the maid’s pay, or the grocery money, or some young boy’s precious savings. One of my favorite reads, when I was taking an economics minor long ago, was “Zero Sum Solution” by Lester Thurow. One message I took from the book is that in the short run each winner results in a loser. This appears to be true in macro-economics, in life (except for love, of course), and in governing a nation. Conservatives and liberals alike should pay heed to this immutable fact: whatever you give to one you must eventually take from another.
Yes, we are back in France for a short visit. Today at lunch, a man began to chat with us in French, with a smattering of Italian (his native language) tossed in for color. Between the sounds of the surf and passing cars I could only understand parts of his long story, but the experience was priceless. His companion was having none of it, although he frequently helped him with vocabulary when he got stuck. Why did either of them bother? I have no idea, but it is nice to be back.
