Have you ever heard of freecycle? Oh, it can be a great place to get stuff out of your house, as well as bring stuff into your house. And it’s all free! It’s the equivalent of  getting and giving gifts, with total strangers! In bigger cities, it works well, but in my town, it’s mainly junk. There are more WANTED ads than OFFERS.

But our landlord rightfully seized back his dining room table the other day, so I posted WANTED: a dining room table for 6, in Auburn.

Below is the correspondence I sent off this morning–to the person who wrote me asking if I want TO BUY her dining room table. Ah! The nerve! The blatant disrespect for freecycle values! Arghhhh!

D says that my response was too harsh. Sure, I hadn’t had coffee yet, aka my meds, but my response came from my heart. I don’t think it needed to be filtered and I sure wish we did speak like this to our friends, family and strangers–because when we lack accountability–we wind up needing governance. And time has shown that those who govern–don’t always have our interest in mind.

CORRESPONDENCE:   

me to Laurie Mayhew:   

Thanks for writing. Your table sounds nice, but it’s out of my price range, which is why I posted on freecycle. I’m not sure if you are aware, but:
Freecycle� is for posting FREE items only. No selling or trading of items is allowed.

Like many situations here in our country, we can’t think to bend the rules just in our favor.  Rules are there to govern the masses, no matter how big, small, or relevant.  Otherwise, if 2,000 individuals think it’s ok, then the next day, 6,000 think it’s ok, and before you know it, no one is respecting the rules. I’ve been tempted to post or approach someone about something for sale. BUT I DON”T because it’s FREECYCLE.

Respectfully,
Alix

Laurie Mayhew to me:

— On Wed, 9/3/08, Laurie Mayhew <transcription101@yahoo.com> wrote:
From: Laurie Mayhew <transcription101@yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: LA Freecycle(TM) WANTED: Dining Room Table that seats 6 in Auburn
To: “Alix B.” <fluidattitude@yahoo.com>
Date: Wednesday, September 3, 2008, 7:44 PM

I have a farmers style dinning room table in good shape it is 4 years old but still very solid, it has 4 chairs and a bench.  the top is cherry and the bottom is hunter green I have downsized and am looking to get rid of it, I would be willing to take 125.00 for it

Original ad:

On Wed, 9/3/08, Alix B. <fluidattitude@yahoo.com> wrote:
From: Alix B. <fluidattitude@yahoo.com>
Subject: LA Freecycle(TM) WANTED: Dining Room Table that seats 6 in Auburn
To: LA_Freecycle@yahoogroups.com
Date: Wednesday, September 3, 2008, 11:30 AM

Our family is in Auburn, we were using the landlords but he just took
it back. Please, we will travel to pick it up. Thanks a lot!

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