Scarcity

We had a yard sale today.  What a joy.

It was for a good cause, a young girl whose family situation makes it financially difficult for her to participate in an activity for which she has enthusiasm and potential talent.  Even that made the pain of realizing that I was about to give away things that I had worked months to buy.  I had bought what was now effectively trash.

This self-loathing that I always experience when I prepare for a yard sale was met with even more profound sadness when I sat and really, really observed the people who came to the yard sale.

I don't know about you, but when I go to yard sales (as infrequent as that may be) I'm looking for something in particular.  I park.  I walk around.  If I don't see it, I'm out of there.

Not these folks.  They shopped.  They were looking for something they could buy with whatever money they felt comfortable telling me they had.

Would you take $1 for this?

My heart broke.  "Sure", I said, but what I thought was "what they heck do you want that piece of junk for?"  I could only pray that the reason they were buying it was something deeper and more profound than they only had $1 and wanted to buy something.