I lost seventy Euros in Spain. That’s how I always start the story. I took the money from the ATM, and then I reach into my wallet about an hour later and the money is gone.
I suppose everyone who’s ever lost money before has a similar story, but mine’s made even more mysterious by the fact that my ‘wallet’ was a security wallet, tucked deep within the front of my pants. Unless muggers in Barcelona have begun borrowing invisibility cloaks from Harry Potter I think I would have noticed any man, woman, or child who got close enough to dig their gritty hands into the front of my pants, fish out my money, and even have the guile to zip the pouch back up. This made it all the more difficult to attempt to explain it to my girlfriend.
“So I’m walking, money safely tucked in my pants, when this little seven-year-old midget reached down into my nether region with hands so small and delicate that I had no chance of feeling it. I’m sorry, honey, I really didn’t stand a chance. Kids in these countries are taught to steal before they’re taught to read.”
“Wait,” she says, “was it a child or a midget?”
“Both!” I shout, thinking that a child-midget must have enough magic to pull all kinds of trickery if he or she desired.
“I don’t think his arms would be long enough,” she replied. She would need a little more convincing, but she’d come around. After all, what were the alternatives?
“Sorry honey, I thought I put the money in my pocket, but instead I missed and threw it on the ground and didn’t have enough mental ability to notice.”
No I couldn’t say that, not even if that’s most likely what happened.
They say one of the greatest skills is being able to admit a mistake when you make one, but I disagree. I think an even greater skill is never making a mistake to begin with. That would negate the need to admit anything and totally one-up the admitters.
I know a lot of people who, when something bad happens, brings in little bits of good things that happened around the same time to excuse away feeling ashamed or embarrassed. I do it too. It’s really hard not to. So when I lost the 70 euros, I thought to myself: “hey Nick, it’s not so bad. Think about how cheap the plane tickets were. And the hotel too. Hell, that 3 euro chicken kebab wasn’t half bad either. It would cost at least twice that in Norway!”
It’s weird, but that kind of give and take logic actually works a bit. It works even better than the “maybe someone found it who needed it more” logic.
I’m not sure why I always have to justify things in my head and make everything even out. I feel like it would be so much easier to just accept the ups and downs without comparing them.
But on the subject of ups and downs, I got some really sweet photos in from Barcelona and maybe even sweeter ones from the smaller nearby city of Sitges. I’ve got nothing to complain about.
