Learning the lesson - monetarily

All it takes is one wrong move. You could be the best child, best student, best athlete, best spouse, best employee but you make one wrong choice and it can ruin your reputation for a very long time.

You see the impact of Michael Phelps, the golden boy of the Olympics, treated like a hero, nos a superhero. One picture of him smoking a marijuana pipe and everywhere around him - is disappointment. His sponsors, his fans even his coach is disappointed.

It must be a very big burden to carry. How do you know what will happen if you make a certain choice? If we had a crystal ball - that would be so perfect. Even if you have elders telling you what is right and wrong, it does not guarantee that you will listen to them. So what is it that makes one listen, even at a young age?

As a parent you try to teach your children of dealing with the truth, no matter how hard it is. Yet in this day and age money speaks and nothing speaks better than taking money away. When you look at the way the society works, it is all about the money - having too much or too less has an impact. Just look at the economy today.

I have always been accused of trying to live an ideal life so that I don't have to deal with conflicts - and maybe that is true to some extent, however if everyone did what they were suppossed to do then we would not have any problems now, would we?

What is surprising is how quickly the lesson is learnt, and when there is money involved then the lesson is learnt quickly and when the money involved is yours - the lesson is learnt at lightening speed.

Case and point - books borrowed by the kids needed to be returned to the library except they were late. By the time we figured out what the fines were, (they were astronomical!!!! ) tempers were simmering on a slow boil. When it was confirmed that no adult would be paying the fines and all extra curricular activity would be suspended until all fines were paid off - there was an incentive to work out the details to get the issue resolved.

In this day and age of technology and instant gratification - in order to maintain your values, you have to be creative.

Sometimes I wonder if money was invented so that life lessons can be learnt faster than if we took the time to figure out who we are and what purpose do we serve?

As far as our case, needless to say, the issue was resolved - no major fines. In fact it was a miracle. (too long a story for this post - maybe for another post).

I guess the incentive worked.