23 Comments
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The Radical Individualist's avatar

Yes, these managers were good to you. But you were also good to them.

I am retired now, but used to be an employer. There is a myth that employers control everything and can treat employees however they wish. Far from it. Finding good employees was always the most difficult pat of my job. Paying more does not necessarily get you better employees. You can't pay a person to have character. You have to find people with character, and then treat well and pay them well in order to keep them.

Pam's avatar
Jan 26Edited

Thank you for sharing your experience. Despite the deceit of your “friend”, and the terrible situation it placed you in, you instead chose to continue to trust, and step up in a difficult situation, and focus on the kindness and blessings you were given. This is the way. ❤️

Adam B. Coleman's avatar

Thank you for reading it.

I have no regrets. Lots of lessons learned.

Teru Coleman's avatar

I figured something was wrong, but not the details. We all do things on a whim, but we learn from our mistakes…. I have a similar story when I was 19 and the person that helped me was here from Haiti! There are considerate people from all countries here in America….

Chrissy's avatar

People doing God's will is what that beautiful story says to my heart. Thank you. Bless you for your leadership and bringing us back to what America really is and needs to continue to be.

HEIDI's avatar

You are an amazing American. Ty for your courage, honesty, integrity, insight, perseverance, and insistence on following TRUTH.

Stosh Wychulus's avatar

I'd strongly recommend this site for stories of amazing Americans, if you're not already aware of it.

https://substack.com/@historicalsnapshots/note/c-205347481

Mystic William's avatar

Adam…you didn’t say but was it a group of Christians?

Adam B. Coleman's avatar

That I'm not sure of to be honest. At the time, I was very detached from religion and being that I was always in a work environment...it never came up. If I were to guess, most might have been. Honestly not sure. This was in Nashville so it's a good guess.

Cafe Comments by Lauri Harris's avatar

20 years ago in Nashville and quietly helping a newcomer to town, that would be a 99% chance they were all Christians.

Wise Old Woman in the Woods's avatar

That is a wonderful story. I think it could only happen at a small business where people know one another without the hindrance of a human resource/legal department. Lutnick's speech at Davos unraveled the lie we've been told - one that I swallowed uneasily - that offshoring businesses would benefit the US. It didn't. It unraveled communities. And no one should forget this narrative was pushed by both Neo-Cons and Democrats.

Adam B. Coleman's avatar

Without mentioning the company, it was the central station alarm service for a nationwide chain. So, technically, we were part of a big corporation. Now, we didnt have hundreds of employees so it was easy to know each other.

Wise Old Woman in the Woods's avatar

I should have clarified that I meant small businesses to include those that are in the millions for revenue streams and not the billions. But with surveillance, even small are run like the big guys. In an episode of Racket News, Walter Kern told viewers of his run in with a chain of tire stores. He needed something a little different than the typical offering. The guy refused and he asked what that wasn't possible. The guy pointing to a surveillance camera that was surely monitored by someone far away. I love technology but we are to be the masters and not the mastered.

Cori Bren's avatar

Thank you, Adam.

Paul Kirwin's avatar

Thanks for writing this. It brought back lots of memories and emotions I went through after barely passing high school. I was the one of 8 kids that wasn’t interested in college. I can still see my father’s face when he said “Tomorrow show me your enlistment papers or tell me where you’ll be working.”

It wasn’t tough love. There was never love in our relationship.

Friends and their parents took me in.

Funny I just responded to another post about selfishness not always being a bad thing. I was thinking how sometimes being kind or considerate of others can be a selfish act we commit in the belief that by sewing love we will be loved. I imagine that kindness isn’t so much an American thing as it is a heartfelt thing. ‘Asking nothing in return’ doesn’t necessarily mean that we aren’t seeking a return of consideration.

I imagine that kindness isn’t so much an American thing as it is a heartfelt thing.

Jim McNeill's avatar

We have an ex Prime Minister telling people our country is an authoritarian hellhole where people are jailed for a tweet. We have right wing grifters telling us the country is about to descend into a racial civil war, and left wing grifters saying a conservative political party is fascist.

They’re all liars. We are still a country of polite, reserved people who will help anyone out in an emergency. And we know that our inventive, hard working American friends are as generous and open hearted as ever, despite what any invested party or hysterical journalist tries to tell us.

ken terry's avatar

Another example of how God can bless us in our tough seasons. You could have given up and gone 'home'. You could have kept your pride intact and not told the boss, sleeping in the car. You could have had a fit and blamed hard times on the lame 'friend'. Instead you showed some humility and answered an honest query from the boss with the truth and allowed God to use him (and your other new friends). Love this story. I've met some amazing Americans also. We need to tell these tales.

John Wygertz's avatar

Please keep these stories coming.

I just lost one of my best friends, an older guy who helped me change careers and mentored me through the first years of getting on my feet.

He made my life so much better, and I will miss him forever.

Switter’s World's avatar

Sometimes the only way we can learn how wonderful people can be is if we swallow our pride and allow them to help us in our times of need.

Mel Bel's avatar

This is beautiful. Thank you for sharing!

Luc Lelievre's avatar

I went through a similar trauma in Quebec, Canada, in the 1970s.

https://unbekoming.substack.com/p/anthropological-reversibility