Three Different Stories about the Same Thing
A lady needed some repair work done on a house she'd just bought. It was a fixer-upper, so she brought in a local handyman she knew. They weren't dating but were friends. The house used to belong to a judge and had at one time been a stunner. The handyman in the process of breaking through a wall discovered a safe deposit box and brought it to the current owner. Cool!
So they broke the lock and opened it. Wow! It looked like a million dollars but was only like 10, 000. Still!
They were very excited. The lady thought about what she could do with the money. So did the handyman. Hmm.... she didn't have to, but she decided to share. something like 80/20. Wait! How about 70/30?
No, she said. It's my house. He countered by saying, he was the one who found it. She agreed to 70/30, but then he thought why not 50/50.
No way!
The lady, no longer were they friends, took the handyman to court where they each laid out their case. Both of them had a claim to the money. In the mean time, the story was carried in the news and lo and behold the former owner's family found out about the money. They went before the judge because now they too had a stake in how the money was divided. Actually, they thought they deserved it all. I mean it was their family member who had left it behind in the wall.
So in the end, no one was happy. In the end no one was friends with each other. And the money, what was left after court expenses and paying off the lawyers, in the end turned out not to be worth the trouble.
All this to say: did you hear the story on NPR this morning about Augusten Burrough's mother and brother penning a memoir. Of course Augusten Burrough's own memoir Running with Scissors was a run-away bestseller (pun intended). Same family, same stuff, but three different perspectives. The mom claims she wasn't that bad and that she named her son Chris and not Augusten and the brother said hey I got treated bad too by my insane family and maybe not ALL the bad stuff happened to Chris, whoops Augusten.
Interesting isn't it? how all these stories are the same. Different, but pretty much the same. Even the part that no one ends up liking each other in the end.
So they broke the lock and opened it. Wow! It looked like a million dollars but was only like 10, 000. Still!
They were very excited. The lady thought about what she could do with the money. So did the handyman. Hmm.... she didn't have to, but she decided to share. something like 80/20. Wait! How about 70/30?
No, she said. It's my house. He countered by saying, he was the one who found it. She agreed to 70/30, but then he thought why not 50/50.
No way!
The lady, no longer were they friends, took the handyman to court where they each laid out their case. Both of them had a claim to the money. In the mean time, the story was carried in the news and lo and behold the former owner's family found out about the money. They went before the judge because now they too had a stake in how the money was divided. Actually, they thought they deserved it all. I mean it was their family member who had left it behind in the wall.
So in the end, no one was happy. In the end no one was friends with each other. And the money, what was left after court expenses and paying off the lawyers, in the end turned out not to be worth the trouble.
All this to say: did you hear the story on NPR this morning about Augusten Burrough's mother and brother penning a memoir. Of course Augusten Burrough's own memoir Running with Scissors was a run-away bestseller (pun intended). Same family, same stuff, but three different perspectives. The mom claims she wasn't that bad and that she named her son Chris and not Augusten and the brother said hey I got treated bad too by my insane family and maybe not ALL the bad stuff happened to Chris, whoops Augusten.
Interesting isn't it? how all these stories are the same. Different, but pretty much the same. Even the part that no one ends up liking each other in the end.
Comments