Re:payment 2.0: debt, depth, death (?)...of gratitude...(ex)claims!

"I owe ya!" Two sides of the same coin...As I claimed here 48 hours ago, and do so once again, as a "friendly reminder" (as in "...your payment is a little overdue...did you overlook...please don't forget again...")...48 hours, about the amount of time, regardless of what they owed, for an "Average Joe" to get over it, as in getting over gratitude if/when something is freely given, when a debt is erased, "Wiped Out" with a stroke of a pen...

"Never Enough!" A refrain heard in many households containing children, who seem ungrateful, but then, a few years later, turn it on their parents, in the context of "no matter how good I do in school..." While these may have not been the exact words I heard/read a few days ago, minutes, hours after the "SIGNING", it sure seemed like the tone, intent, by quotes, grumblings by several potential candidates, targets, recipients of (student) debt erasing...lacking full context I assumed they either borrowed from a substandard, poorly rated lender ("ever heard of due diligence dude?"), or from one who had just finished paying off a student loan themselves...("dude, sucks to be you, bad timing")

"SIGNED, sealed, delivered..." "I'm Yours..."𝅘𝅥𝅯 As in forever, like in "forever stamps" which never lose their value😊...as in "forever in your debt" a different meaning altogether, by those generations far into the future, "father than the eye can see...deeper than the deep blue sea" (in this case a "sea of red")...who find themselves recipients of a collective debt, who together (de)cry, "Who, where, how...and WHY OH WHY...?!" Did someone think of this so-called "Anti-Inflationary bill, as one which immediately gave millions to millions, but added billions and billions, in interest to us, whose interests would have better served...We Owe ya!"

Paying for (In)convenience: As when you're either out of cash money, "down on your luck", where you don't know where and who to turn to...A few weeks ago, when I took a chunk of "spare change" (a quote, in the form of a question we heard early and often in our high school hallways) to a local grocery store and gladly paid out (in the form of just a small %) for the convenience of using a machine, almost as fun as "playing the slots!" (now offered online, of course, as a convenience), simply dumping in my coins and in return given a slip for the cashier (reflecting a slight deduction for the convenience, a "service charge")...that was to be closely followed by a simple "click" on the button offering me "cash back" when I used my credit card to buy groceries, reflected once again on my receipt in the form of...And even more recently, within the last 48 hours, just after the SIGNING, I found myself in a local convenience store (branded as "7/11" but actually available to be 24/7😎) "What do I owe you?" I inquired. "13.87 sir" was his reply..."Gladly, and thank you for being here" was mine...Thanks, gratitude he rarely gets, from the looks of it...

Paying Forward: Something our parents taught us, first in the form of service to others without the expectation of anything in return, a show of gratitude for what we ourselves were given...And then, instrumentally, in the form of money management, when we first received credit card offers: "...make sure if you get one and you start using it, the first thing you do when returning home, is to write out a check to the credit card company for a dollar more, which will remind you about interest payments...but don't expect a thank you from the company when you get your next statement..."

No Thanks: When was the last time you thanked a cashier when you actually handed them cash, and when was the last time you put a TY note in the envelope when you paid a "fixed" expense (more likely paid these days via 'auto-deduct', hardly noticed at first), on what has perhaps become a "broken" income...? To a lender you gladly took money from, when you either saw it the same way they presented it to you, "as a quick way to pay off other debt and actually earn credit.." Or, more dramatically, you found yourself...

"Over a barrel" Which for any of us might be experienced as wither being pressed for time, down on our luck, or an unfortunate mash-up of 'vicissitudes' (haven't seen this in a while, eh?), a "slangy expression" originating in an era, "The Great Depression", when countless had minimal coins to count ("brother, can you spare a dime?")...an allusion to an attempt to revive one drowning (in debt, for instance) by placing the victim over  barrel, rolling it back and forth, in an attempt to empty the lungs of water, after being "underwater"...which was followed fairly close in time, happily replaced (circa WW II) by "bring out the barrels, we're going to have a barrel of fun...🎵" And eventually, when we as a nation (whether individually experienced) seemed like "we had it made...just barreling along like..." Until we smacked into some guard rails, in whatever form (such as when the virus came a calling, the exclaim of a former President), or our own personal (mis)fortunes, that make us prone...to "bad debt" on the one hand, and a "lack of gratitude" on the other...

Reason-nation: A resonance, an echo of both debt, debtors, attitude, gratitude...the "good, bad, and the..." Songs of old, those yet un-penned, untold stories, just waiting to be told to those who, while unseen, are right now, counting on U.S. -- "Don't you (forget about me)" 𝅘𝅥𝅮 by "Simple Minds", 1985...preceded by many years, a few generations (penned for us by "The Surfaris in 1963), to be re-experienced by those way into the future, like being hit by a wave, a tsunami even..."WIPE-OUT!"..."Now, I can't even scrape enough pennies together for a cup of Joe; thanks a lot!" 

Come on in, surf's up, the water's fine..."Thanks, but no"