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September 17th, 2002

The Broken Window

Occasionally our students will either accidentally or purposly bust up our home\office. We usually just shrug it off and take the lose.  I have done this from the beginning because of my many experiences with people in America who bust up my stuff and somehow it all becomes my fault. Experiences like when I owned The Pool Hall in Cambria and some of the patrons smashed holes in the walls and they told me it was because I had positioned the table too close to the wall and they needed the extra room to aim the pool stick.  Because of stupid, stupid shit like that and the fact that it lost money from the start and I was just keeping it open as a place to hang out... I closed it. (It was a lot of fun though... I’ll have too make a homepage about it someday.)

A baby sitter tore up my computer because I said it was OK for her to use it.  My fault again... Then her father threatened to kick my ass when I paid her salary in pennies. (Of course I had put them in a can and poured wax on top of them   :>) I guess he was in desperate need of that $2.50.

My brother John borrowed my MGB and when after he had the timing modified to run hot IT CAUGHT ON FIRE... somehow my fault for not lending him a more reliable car... or maybe it was because I didn’t tell him NOT to modify the way my car engine ran... whatever the reason he never paid a cent to have it fixed, so now it just sits in a garage in Marissa waiting for me to repair it.  I contemplated revenge but at that time he was doing such a good job of screwing up his own life that I couldn’t think of anything that was worse... lack of imagination I guess.

Hey, America doesn’t have all the thoughtless people.  Several students in my school have broken things.  One kid karate kicked my office door for no reason, I told his mother and she apologized but didn’t offer to fix my door. There are others but I’m sure your getting tired of reading about my past slights, let’s just say there are lots and lots...

Since I have moved to Japan I have tried to rectify all of my mistakes and the mistakes of my family and even the mistakes that weren’t anybody's fault but needed to be taken care of to promote neighborly peace. (Like fixing the neighbor’s window when a storm blew my umbrella thru her window... I mean, How is that my fault...)  So since I have paid and paid, I have decided to ask people to pay me for my slights. (OK, people in Japan... my family can continue to screw me over and I’ll just smile and let it slide.  What am I gonna do, alienate people I see maybe once every 18 months or so....)

So today, Mary’s student accidentally broke the living room window.  She just lightly bumped her head into it and somehow it broke.  When her mother came, she offered to pay for it. And instead of waving her away and refusing the money, I accepted.