It is five o'clock in the morning and I am filling my gas tank at the Quicki-Mart. It is dark and bitterly cold. Across the highway, the sign over the bank flashes a chilly -14 °F.
A few cars sputter by, each dragging a long tail of condensation. I will soon join them but before I can go anywhere, the pump has a few questions.
“Are you a loyalty club member... Y/N?” it wants to know.
I try to recall if my wife signed us up but I can’t focus. It is cold and the pop music blasting from the canopy overhead makes thinking impossible.
If I answer yes, the pump will demand that I document my loyalty. If I do nothing, hopefully it will move on.
The pumps sulks for a few moments before repeating the question.
“Are you a loyalty club member... Y/N?”
I press the “NO” button.
Now it asks if I want a car wash. The wash is closed because the doors are frozen to the concrete. Apparently the pump does not know this.
I indicate "NO".
It continues the interrogation. “Do you want a receipt... Y/N?”
At -14 °F, all I want is gas, warmth and blessed silence from the canopy above.
A rumble rises from deep within the pump’s guts. I have heard dogs do this and I step back knowing what happens after dogs do that.
The pump winces. It’s screen blinks. Clearly it is very upset. Another LCD question slowly forms in the crystals....
“Are you a loyalty club member... Y/N?”
I get back into my car and drive down the highway to a gas station where I did business for years. There the pumps are stupid. They know nothing about human emotions, least of all loyalty. All they do is dispense gasoline.
I used to be fiercely loyal to this station back when the pumps were manned by guys with monosyllabic names like Roy, Chuck and Jim.
No matter how cold it was, they would come out of the warmth to fill my tank then they would wash the windows and check the oil, radiator fluid and tire pressure -- and do so cheerfully.
But those guys aren't around anymore because I stopped being loyal to them. Instead, I went down the block to pump my own gas and save a few pennies.
Now that station demands I carry a card to prove my loyalty. I refuse to do it. It is like having to prove fidelity to a cheating spouse.
But more importantly, I refuse because of practical reasons. Being a guy, I carry a wallet which means if I carry a loyalty card, I have to sit on it, ergo in every sense of the word, a retailer’s loyalty card is a pain in the ass.
Besides if a retailer wants my loyalty, they can earn it by selling quality goods at a fair price. They also might want to consider standing behind their products instead of trying to clip me for an extended warranty.
For gas stations, I know the days of Roy, Chuck and Jim are gone. We threw them away. But they can still earn loyalty by providing clean restrooms, free air and of course - pumps that don’t nag you.
***
This week's challenge: write about loyalty
Years ago, my parents moved from Saint Paul to a small town in Northern Minnesota. My brother who was in high school at the time, hated it. He called me one night to complain.
"Let me tell you what it's like up here," he said, "You got your Ford bars and you got your Chevy bars and if you want to start a fight, step into the wrong bar and yell, 'Chevy trucks suck!!!"
This is not an isolated trend, my friends at the Minneapolis Police Department tell me they have to use fire-hoses and tear-gas to prevent roving hordes of iPhone and Android users from sacking each other's coffee shops.
This phenomena of chest-thumping tribal loyalty is very much on our minds this weekend because of tension along the Minnesota/Wisconsin border after the Vikings/Packers game.
Passions always run the highest when stakes are the lowest.
So where do your loyalties lay?
Where do the loyalties of your characters lay?
Write about it.
***
Post your article to Gather Writing Essentials.
BE SURE TO TAG your submission with MWE. Note: I search for articles using the tag "MWE" If you don't tag it right, I will not find it.
- Include "Monday Writing Essential" in your title.
- Try to post by next Monday but don't worry if you don't finish in time. I will be glad to include you post the next week.
***
Last week’s writing challenge: what would have been or should have been - drew the following responses:
Monday Writing Essential-- Pop Quiz for intermediate and advanced students: Faith 101--Lost & Found by Kingston Kaprinski
MWE, Monday Writing Essential - December 31, 2012: What Would Have Been FWE, Friday Writing Essential Prompt for 12/28/2012, Disappointment by Pam Brittain
Monday Writing Essential: Haiku for a new year by Kingston Kaprinski
IF I'DA GONE TO TEXAS (Monday Writing Essential - December 31, 2012: What Would Have Been - MWE) by Joann B.
MWE--What should have been--OF PEARL by sarah leanne
MWE my would be books. dec 31/12 by karen vaughan
If We Had the Chance to do it All Again.... MWE Monday Writing Essential by jeanne clarke
Monday Writing Essential Submission: The witch's true love and the way things should have been. by Franklin Newman
Weekly reminder: don't forget to recommend an article that you like (to learn why, read Ann Marcaida's articleAttract More Writers and Artists to Gather!).. Also try to place a comment on at least one article and say more than you liked the piece. Tell the author what worked and what needs work.
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Comments: 70
You might notice my name was not on the list of responses. I actually had a rough idea last week but it's been so bloody cold (it got down to 43 a couple nights ago) that my idea froze before I could write it.
Featured on Gather’s Luminous Writers & Artists.
Wow, 43 °F!! At that temperature Minnesotans would be out in their yards at midnight basking in the reflected sunlight of the moon.
with a deep suntan to show for it! Next to the frostbite scars, of course...
Loyalty seems to be defined by the amount of crap you're willing to put up with. And it's a black hole, whether it's a card for gas discounts, a fee you have to call in and formally opt out of for a bank service you've never used, or certain relationships. It works because there's always somebody willing to pay the price...
I may sound bitter because it's bitterly cold out... >-
Thank you for sharing and submitting to
The Surreal Circus.
Ohhh - pity party. I'm an expert at hosting those! I've already drawn up some invitations to help you out;-]
I won't make everyone squirm in distress by identifying the guilty parties, but I have recently found multiple Gather 'writing leaders' lacking in humour (and thus likely other qualities) after I place a not entirely germane comment under one of their oh-so-serious posts.
One deleted my comment, the other intransigent that s/he not learn anything except that I have serious issues. Which - to be perfectly honest.....no, let's skip the perfectly honest part.
We humans are chock full of delusions. Thank you for not taking yours so f***ing serious. You give me hope;-]
As you can see, Greg - Hyper and I have much comradery on this site. I play the violin while he dribbles the snot. Some might call it "enabling" but I prefer to call it "mutually rewarding assistance".
But on the other hand, I seriously doubt it.
jeanne and me enabling? Prolly.
Ennobling? Not so much.
As a person of vision, here is my vision for a Hyper-jeanne pity party
that, wisely, no one else will attend (I iz the darker one, natch):
Don't forget to bring the whine to the party!
Thank you for submitting to: Not Gathering Dust!
Make your own banner at MyBannerMaker.com!
Something to think about this cold (but not as cold as your state) Monday morning.
I get very weary of playing the $ game of cents off everywhere I shop. But I do it.
My friend says beat them at their own game - free is good.
Now loyalty to people - that's a different story.
The loyalty card gimmick appeals to the coupon clipper crowd. Can't say I ever clipped a coupon, much less used one. It drives my wife nuts... but then driving her nuts is my job. :)
If he lost his head to a cat, he couldn't have been too wise.
I wonder how much business that gas station has lost because of the questions/delay/just let me pump my gas already!?
No, actually that station is going gang-busters. It's a cultural thing, everyone out here in the sticks is trying to pinch pennies.
Growing up in a Motor City suburb, I was familiar with car loyalty, not only in bars, but in neighborhoods. Now I would be happy to hear anyone speaking loyally of any American made car.
Eric Felten
Loyalty: The Vexing Virtue
Simon & Schuster, 2011 $15,ppbk.
from the back cover/ Philosophy
A witty, provocative, story-filled inquiry into the indispensable virtue of loyalty--a tricky ideal that gets tangled and compromised when loyalties collide (as they inevitably do), but a virtue the author, a prizewinning columnist for The Wall Street Journal says is as essential as it is impossible.
Loyalty is vexing. It forces us to choose who and what counts most in our lives. It forces us to confront the conflicting claims of fidelity to country, community, company, church, and even ourselves. Loyalty demands we make decisions that define who we are.
"If only the philosophy professors could relax and submit to the charm of Felten's book--its nicely balanced arguments and its many examples, both everyday and literary--they might see how much it contributes to the understanding of virtue, particularly modern virtue."
--"Defining Ideas," Harvey C. Mansfield, Harvard University
"...the range of examples and illustrations is formidable."
--National Review
"In an extraordinary meditation, Eric Felten begins with a seemingly simple subject--loyalty--and then carefully peels back all of its myriad layers of complexity. It is a work that is both erudite and readable, and teaches you something."
--Francis Fukuyama, author of The End of History and the Last Man and The Origins of Political Order
Eric Felten writes The Wall Street Journal's well-regarded culture column "Postmodern Times." For four years, he wrote the Journal's celebrated column "How's Your Drink?," which won a James Beard Foundation Award. He is a jazz singer and trombonist, and his TV concert special has been seen on PBS stations nationwide. He lives in Washington, D.C., with his wife and three children.
Interesting book!!!
I noticed Francis Fukuyama's name. I have been reading The American Interest Magazine lately. Fukuyama is an editor there. Mostly I have been reading Walter Russel Mead's blog. I can't say I always agree with him but the perspective of a Blue Dog Democrat is refreshing.