I don’t understand people
I should, given the nature of my industry. But, more and more, I realize that while we can understand types of people, consumer behaviour, crowd psychology, and the like, I will never understand some people.
I’m on the road all week, and frankly, I’ve got a little bit of work-related stress going on. So, yesterday, before dinner, I went to the gym in the hotel I’m staying at. It’s small and it sucks, so, in the interest of not hanging myself when I was stepping over the abdominal board to get to the dumbells, I took off my iPod. I finished my workout, did some time on the treadmill, wandered out in a bit of a haze of endorphins and went back to my room to shower.
At dinner, I realized that I had never picked up the iPod I put down. I immediately excused myself and called the hotel. The concierge went to the fitness room, and called me back five minutes later. It was not there, and it was not in lost and found.
Okay… I get it. My fault. I shouldn’t have left the thing there in the first place. Thing is, this is a private gym in a four-star hotel. Nobody that is staying here can’t afford an iPod. When my bike was stolen in the summer, I understood. To a crackhead, a bike equals more crack. But in this case, the first person to come across it had to make the conscious decision not to walk it 10 feet to the front desk and say “someone left this in the gym,” but to actually steal something that belongs to someone else – something which, presumably, they could easily afford.
Maybe I was just brought up differently than other people, but my parents were pretty clear on the whole “don’t steal” thing.
Oh well – possessions are fleeting, etc.
