Greediness Never Pays Off

A few weeks ago at Ben’s work party we played Deal or No Deal. It probably wasn’t quite as stressful as the TV version since our game stopped at $10,000 instead of $1,000,000, but it was still crazy to see how fast greediness took over people. One couple went home with only $150 because they couldn’t stop when there was still a tiny chance of making the big bucks.

Incidentally, the greed monster came to visit me last week. I told Ben not to get me anything for Mother’s Day because I wanted a pair of shoes and I wanted to pick them out myself. Then, without telling Ben, I also decided that I deserved a new CD for Mother’s Day—a CD that I had been talking about for a few weeks. So I bought myself the shoes and the CD and called myself an awesome mother.

But then Mother’s Day came. Apparently Ben thought I was even more awesome than I thought and that I deserved more than just the pair of shoes. He bought me Sam Bush concert tickets and also, remember that CD I had been talking about for a few weeks? The one that I bought myself without telling him? He downloaded it off iTunes and made a CD for me. Sweet, huh?

So now I have two copies of that CD and neither of them is returnable. And it’s not even the world’s greatest band. But the thing that gets me the most is that if I hadn’t been so greedy, I would have that CD for NOT the $22.98 we both spent on it, and NOT the $15.99 I spent on it, but the measly $6.99 Ben spent downloading it off iTunes.