Are You Living Off The Kindness Of the Dead?

Listening to Gennie arguing with Yendie, her supervisor.

“We are best friends, and they just fired me, and you did nothing to prevent it. You didn’t try to defend me either. What kind of friend are you?” Gennie cursed at Yendie as she sat beside her in the cafeteria at their job.

Yendie stared at her for a while, easing closer, thinking about how to handle this without hurting her. ‘What the heck!’ Her instincts said. No matter what you say, hell won’t leave. But the truth might work.

“But that will hurt her,” Yendie informs.

“Then lie to her,” her conscience suggested. “That would make her happy.”

“But then reality might kick in, and she accuses me of not telling her the truth,” Yendie argued with her sanity.

“Is she the kind of person who will see the truth in her actions, choices, and decisions and admit she was wrong. Learn from hell and change?”

“Damn!” Yendie reality said.

“You can lose with the truth or win with a lie. Make a decision now!” Her conscience suggested.

Yendie sighed, released, and elaborated, reminding her, “Yvette, Phil, and I recommended you for the position because of the kindness your mother and grandmother showed to us. Not because you were qualified for the job.”

“So, you knew I was underqualified, got me hired, and now you are helping them to fire me for not doing a good job?” Gennie’s anger demands.

“Damn!” burst from Yendi’s conscience, and she erupted in laughter.

In anger, Gennie questioned on the rim of rage, “You think this is funny?”

Smiling, Yendie shared, “Yes, I think it’s funny that we helped you get hired from the kindness of dead people. We are repaying your dead mother and grandmother for their kindness to us. You don’t think you should have done a better job to maintain the kindness that you didn’t earn or deserve!”

Her eyes popped as reality slapped some sense into her. Then she said, “You were paying back the dead kindness? How will they know, use it, or thank you?”

“Really!” Yendie’s anger demands. “Now it’s my turn to ask if you think this is funny? At what point do you take responsibility for your incompetence?”

“I did my best,” she defends.

“You were employed here for only six months!” Yendie reminds her. “Don’t you think you had a responsibility to live up to their good name and kindness that wasn’t from anything you did?”

“I did my best,” her anger repeats.

“Your best, taints our reputation, and closes the door for others who might come in and do a damn good job!” Yendie’s anger exploded.

“I am sorry, I wasn’t thinking of it that way,” she apologized.

“We knew you weren’t qualified, but with all of the training that you got, don’t you think you needed to build a good name for yourself to live on and carry you through. You can’t maintain the ones your family creates, so build your own. You were living on the kindness of the dead and allowed that kindness to sink into the grave with them. The generosity you have received means nothing to you, so I guess it goes back to the dead!”

“I wasn’t aware that that was what I was doing. It’s hard, ok,” her frustration said.

“Easy, is sometimes harder than hard. We had it hard. We didn’t get hired on someone’s good name as you did. We had to earn ours because there was no kindness waiting to save us. Go and create your own good name,” Yendie suggested.

Many of us live on the good name of someone alive and or dead, whether it’s a family member or a friend. When you are being paid from the kindness of dead people, maintain it! Nurture it and allow it to grow so others can benefit. Don’t destroy their good name. It’s better than precious ointments.

Thank you for reading this piece. I hope you enjoyed it.