OK, there was some guilt

The movers came.  I was ecstatic.  I thought it would be glorious.  But it wasn’t…all because of guilt.

Greta felt so guilty about not helping that she had to leave the house.  If she had stayed, she would have spent the entire time trying to give the movers cold gatorade.  She might even have attempted to carry some of the lighter boxes.  All this, from a pregnant woman!

I explained to Greta that there was no need to feel guilty.  We forked over a hefty sum of hard earned cash for the right to watch others do the heavy lifting.  But there was no assuaging her guilt, so she got in the car and drove around, running errands.

None of that should come as a surprise.  Greta is a good person with a big heart.  What is surprising, however, is that I experienced some guilt, too.

My guilt was a little different though.  I didn’t feel guilty that they had to lift boxes.  The best way to describe the feeling is through a noun: yuppy.  I felt yuppy that they had to lift boxes.  These good ol’ boys from New Hampshire were in my house, moving my stuff,  because I wasn’t man enough to move it myself.  And because I could afford to fork over 2 months worth of rent for the privilege.

In order to overcome this, I found myself cracking blue collar jokes, to prove my salt-of-the-earth upbringing.  When those didn’t go over very well, I resorted to setting up public displays of manliness.  Using a power drill, I single-handedly dismantled our bed frame.  Sure, they could have done it for us, but I was out to prove my masculine prowess.

When it was all said and done, I tipped well.  And then I felt guilty about it.  Because surely they appreciate the money, but they can also smell my guilt, in the same way that an animal can smell fear.  Oh well.  What can I do?  I guess I’ll just blame my mother, who probably passed this liberal guiltiness onto me.

Does anyone else know what I’m talking about?

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This entry was written by Chris and posted on July 26, 2007 at and filed under Too Lazy To Cagegorize: Life. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post. Post a comment or leave a trackback: Trackback URL.

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    From Greta: do you think the movers felt guilty about overcharging us?

    Good question.
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    This guilt boils down to one of the underlying problems with Rand’s ideal society. In her utopia, people who are exceptionally skillful at some job join the closed economy realizing that they can specialize on the service they provide to the society while being compensated well enough to achieve they personal financial & spiritual goals. She did not describe / solve the puzzle - who does the jobs that those who were selected to the elite society do not enjoy doing? Where are the porters, plumbers, etc of that society? Like Greta, I’m willing to overpay for some services that I could but opt not to do. It may not be easy on the wallet, but theoretically, it should completely solve the guilt.
    May the apartment to you are moving into become home soon.
 
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