Found Money!

 Do you stop to pick up pennies you see on the ground? 

If not, do you pick up dimes? Or quarters? Or does it just not matter to you?

I have a jar sitting on one of my bookshelf labelled "Found Money." It has been there for about eleven years now, and it contains every piece of "found money" I have picked up since I moved from Texas to Washington state in 2006. I started it as a sort of "experiment" in seeing what truly tiny collecting of a thing would amount to, over time.

It seems to be in our nature to often turn our backs on "little things" with a shrug and a statement along the lines of "oh, it's just not worth my while!" 

But is that really true? Maybe it is-- in the short term-- but what about in the longer term?

I cashed out my last jar of Found Money when I left Texas. There was about $110.00 in it, slowly collected between my college graduation in 1985 and my moving in 2006. Amortized over time, that might not sound like much... but in that moment those tiny amounts funded a really nice dinner and night on the town. All because I "could be bothered" to pick up coins on the floor (and elsewhere), when I saw them.

Cryptocurrencies and Found Money

I am a relative newcomer to the world of cryptocurrencies and "alt coins." 

Until I started blogging on Steemit three months ago, Bitcoin was the only thing I had even a basic knowledge of. 

In exploring this interesting new landscape, I have heard people occasionally mention so-called "faucets" where people can collect little tiny amounts of Bitcoin and other currencies, basically for free. 

The broader consensus seems to be that "faucets" are a waste of time... much the same way as many people think picking up coins in the parking lot is a waste of time.

I got thinking about it, though... aren't these micropayments basically just another variation on "found money?"

I'm sure you can end up with it "not being worthwhile" if your approach is that you're setting out to "make money." But what if it were just something you did occasionally... for example, while you're waiting for the bus? Instead of just staring blankly into space for six minutes?

Based on that principle, I have decided to also keep a "found money" jar (wallet) for cryptocurrencies... because why not? I'll share more about the experiment, as I go along.

Soooo... is there some greater lesson, here?

I'm not sure if there is a lesson here. For me, the underlying message is that perhaps the "antidote" to our modern tendencies to be attracted to-- and focus on-- "lottery style gains" is to occasionally engage in activities that are basically exercises in extreme patience.

The fact-- alone-- that something doesn't happen quickly doesn't necessarily invalidate it.

Here in my local town, the Post Office sits in a building that has been largely unchanged since 1903. People have been walking into the building through the same front doors, following the same path to the service counter, past the banks of original P.O. Boxes, to buy their stamps for 114 years. 

The floor is made of solid hard stone slabs... and yet... the millions and millions of footsteps have actually worn worn a slight hollow in the stone... in places, a two-foot wide depression as much as one inch (25mm) deep in the center. 

It would be ridiculous to say that you could walk on a stone floor and wear it away... and yet? There's the visual representation of exactly that! 

And so, I believe that patience and attention to the small things do pay off, in the long run. How about YOU?

(All text and images by the author, unless otherwise specified. This is original content, created expressly for Steemit)