Why Don’t People Think?

Yesterday when my son got home from school, he called me. Yes, CALLED me…from our land line. Don’t get all excited now, he lost his cell phone. He was frantic, not due to the missing cell phone, per se, but because, according to him, someone could access his contacts and pretend to be him and send out nasty emails to all his friends! He feared his reputation would be ruined! Poor kid, at fourteen this was earth-shattering.

 I reassured him that I would put a hold on the phone until he could check with lost and found at school and with any luck it would be there because we’ve always been good Samaritans, turning in objects we’ve found. He agreed and said he would also send out a notice on Facebook (Oh modern technology, isn’t it grand!).

His message on Facebook said: Lost my phone today in school, so if anyone gets a text from me, its not me. Just a heads up 

A fellow student commented: did u loose it on the bus?? i saw a phone laying there when we were on the way to school? 

Are you freaken kidding me?

 WHO sees an abandoned phone and just leaves it there?

 Rhetorical question.

 I wrote in the comment link of my son’s Facebook thread (Yes, I’m THAT kind of mom): Hmm...I see an abandoned phone...what would I do? I would pick it up and give it to someone who could possibly find its owner. Lesson here: When you see something that doesn't belong somewhere, pick it up. If it’s trash, throw it in a garbage can, a phone, wallet, backpack or something else of some value, GIVE IT TO SOMEONE! Maybe the owner will come looking for it and then find it. Remember, we all misplace things and one day YOU might be WISHING someone had done it FOR YOU! 

That lesson, of picking up something that is obviously lost and turning it in, was taught to me as a kid. I then passed it on to my boys. We found quite a few items over the years—a wallet, a digital camera, jewelry, even a book. We took the items to various places—Customer Service Centers, Lost and Found hubs and even a Police Station.

I don’t know about anyone else, but I sure as heck don’t want to go through the hassle of cancelling everything in MY wallet and then reapplying! Doesn’t it FEEL horrible to lose that precious heirloom from Great-Grandma Edna? It also bites to the max when you have to fork over another hundred bucks, or more, to replace such-and-such because some thoughtless jerk person found such-and-such and rather than THINK about HOW it feels to misplace something of his own, he keeps it!

 There is something uplifting about misplacing something then going back to the last place you had it and voila some thoughtful person left it where you could reclaim it! It gives you a sense that there is still good in the world!

I can’t just blame this lack of oversight on kids either. There are plenty of adults who don’t bother, or if they do, THEY keep the object (and kids live what they learn!). It’s also possible that kids aren’t being taught these simple lessons because their parents are lazy, selfish, thoughtless or a combination of all the above (I try not to be cynical but sometimes people make it tough!).

I do know this, though, with all the technology today we should have a society filled with geniuses but more and more it seems it’s bursting with dummies.