A week day morning when come back home from taking my daughter to school, I saw a book on my laptop. I know that is my husband who put that book and I thought he want me to read it.
Normally I am too lazy to read. I rarely open a book. But for this one I thought it is a gift from my husband after the “Petit Prince” that he gave to me 21 years ago. I start turning the page. I was interested in chapter 6 “Don’t Accept Free Drinks”. I read and discussed it with my husband. We understand that there is no thing in this world is free of charge. When people give us thing, and we accept to take it, meant we are accepting to be in unwillingly in dept. As an example in the book, “Several years ago, a couple invited my wife and me to dinner. We had known this couple casually for quite some time. They were nice but far from entertaining. We couldn’t think of a good excuse to refuse, so we accepted. Things played out exactly as we had imagined: The dinner party was beyond tedious. Nevertheless, we felt obliged to invite them to our home a few months later. The constraint of reciprocity had now presented us with two wearisome evenings. And, lo and behold, a few weeks later, a follow-up invitation from them arrived. I wonder how many dinner parties have been endured in the name of reciprocity, even if the participants would have preferred to drop out of the vicious
cycle years ago“. So if we don’t feel we want to get in that hole, we have to learn how to say “No”.
