About a year and a half ago I wrote a post called The Bachelor about my wife being out of town, me being bored (and boring), and eventually an encounter with Orson Scott Card at Borders, in which, without recognizing him, I gave him my place in line and then, upon finding out who he was, I hoped he would send me a check for “an obscene amount of money.”
A couple of days ago I received this email:
Dear Josh,
Although it’s been a year and a half since you posted “The Bachelor” and mentioned meeting Orson Scott Card, someone only recently sent him a link to it, and he though it was hilarious (along with all of the comments that followed).
Anyway, he asked me if I could get your mailing address because, although he’s not going to send you a check for an obscene amount of money, he WOULD like to send you one of his books, if that’s okay.
Thanks.
Sincerely, Kathleen Assistant to Orson Scott Card
That was, of course, very OK, and in just a couple of days the book arrived. The book was autographed and a nice little note written on the title page:
To Josh- With thanks for your kindness- Scott
I think we can all learn two very important lessons from this:
- It pays to be nice to people. Well, OK, it almost never really “pays”, but go ahead and be nice anyway.
- Anyone of you could send me free things through the mail. No, seriously, try it, it will totally work.
PS- Check out Uncle Orson Reviews Everything.