The Past Will Come Back to Haunt You.

Every once in a while you hear about something you have to write about because it hits home, so I did.

Now sit right back and you'll hear a tale. This is a tale of bitterness, anger, and general malevolence. Once upon a time there was this fellow who decided to do something to better himself. He'd been through a lot over the past year and decided it was time for a change. Like all good things that are used to better yourself, this one cost an extensive amount of cash, so he was planning on financing it away over a few years. Normally it's not a problem for this guy to get financing. Always pays his bills, has a good credit rating, etc, etc, etc. As he is getting more and more excited about this life altering change he fills out all the appropriate paperwork to get the financing straightened away.

I'd be lying to you if I said there were no worries about it, but deep down he really wasn't overly concerned. Everyone, I don't care who you are, gets antsy when borrowing money. It's the nature of the beast.

He's waiting in anticipation when the word comes back, and is thrown into complete shock and awe. He was turned down for the financing. What the Hell? How is this possible? We aren't talking about a hundred thousand dollars here, just a few grand. He maintains composure somehow, chat's his way out of a very uncomfortable situation, gets the phone number of the financial institution that denied him, and walks away. There is an inkling of what the roadblock could be, but he doesn't want to jump to conclusions without the facts. That never amounts to anything worthwhile.

After driving around awhile to cool down, he calls said financial institution to find out why he was denied. As it turns out, the previous inkling that he had was accurate. Just for the background information, this fellow used to be married, but is now going through a separation/divorce. While he and his wife were still together, he got her a credit card under his name. I mean, if you can't trust your significant other, who can you trust right? Well, after the split, she had maxxed out the card and left it unpaid for a few months. After many, many, many phone calls and emails, it got straightened up, but the damage was already done. You can't leave thousands of dollars owing without some form of repercussion. And thus, there is now a huge red streak across this fellow's credit report. Now before any nay-saying begins, he did trust that his (ex) wife would be responsible enough to take care of things. He is just that trusting kind of a guy. I can’t fault him for that. Generally, that is a quality that most people consider a blessing rather than a curse.

Nice huh? Make you feel all warm and squishy?

So now I have a buddy who is fucked for no reason of his own (besides trusting someone he shouldn't have). Not a pleasant situation for anyone to be in. Since I've known this guy a long time I happen to know he is bordering on the edge right now. He is a really relaxed and happy guy most of the time, but this may be the straw that breaks him. Everyone has their breaking point. Turns out, he's still going to go ahead with what he had planned, but it's going to be unbelievably tight for a few months. As hard as it's going to be to pay for it all, he still feels that he needs to get this done in order to move on and get his life back together. I'd try to talk him out of it, but I think he's right. We all have to do things to keep our life together and moving forward. Let's hope that it doesn't make him any more resentful than he already is. I don't think it will, but who knows?

There's my pleasant tale for the day. Next time I'll try to include some humor...

"We can draw lessons from the past, but we cannot live in it."
Lyndon B. Johnson