Tribes

Something nice happened this morning.

I fell victim to a dirty trick, which got my worrying-dad muscles all in an uproar as I genuinely thought my one-and-only daughter was stuck penniless in a very foreign country. What the hell she was doing there was a question I was prepared to table for a calmer time, not that she has to answer to me any more. The immediate issue was to get her home.

Now, longtime readers will know that I'm not exactly a fountain of cash. But right now, thanks to a sudden upsurge in global demand for geiger counters, I've got a little money. Not a lot, but some. I've got one daughter, and she was a good kid and is a better adult, and if she badly needs money in a crisis and I have some she can have every nickel of it. The question, while I waited for her to return my frantic emails, was how to get it to her.

I don't actually possess the cash, Landlady does. That was a practical decision on my part, since she's most likely to be in a position to spend it at my request. And living 'way back in the sticks as I do, I wouldn't have any way to wire the money anywhere even if I did have it. So I did the only thing I could think to do, I sent a message to Landlady briefly explaining my problem and asking if she'd be willing to stand by to wire my money overseas if it came to that. She not only agreed to do that and gave me an up-to-date accounting of how much there was, she also - without even really knowing what the situation was - offered to kick in whatever extra was needed to get me and my daughter out of our (nonexistent, as it turned out) jam.

And if I'd doubted it before - I hadn't - that's when I knew I was picking the right friends. Because that was a pretty cool thing to do.

Shite, people, stop trying to save the country. It can't be saved, and doesn't deserve your effort anyway. Work on building your tribe. Some of those folks won't let you down.