If you had an unlimited budget for 24 hours, what would you do?
This prompt reminded me of a story that happened to me years ago…
I was probably 19 or 20 years old. Early ’90s.
My uncle owned a tree cutting and removal company, and every now and then he’d call me if he needed an extra hand. One spring, Atlanta got hit with some nasty weather. High winds came through and left trees down all over the place.
We spent the day working in some of the high-end neighborhoods around Buckhead. On one particular street, there were trees down everywhere. My uncle and I split up and started knocking on doors to see if anyone needed our services.
One property caught my attention.
A massive oak tree had fallen across the front yard. The place was beautiful. A long winding driveway climbed a hill to a huge old house that looked like something out of a movie.
So I made the walk up.
It seemed to take forever.
When I finally got to the front door, I noticed it was open. I stopped for a second and called out.
“Hello? Anybody home?”
Nothing.
I knocked a few times.
Still nothing.
I called out again.
Nothing.
So I leaned my head just inside the doorway.
All the lights were on.
And sitting in the middle of the room was a large table.
Now that was strange enough.
But what was on the table was stranger.
The entire thing was covered in stacks of cash.
Not a few piles.
Stacks and stacks of money.
The table was loaded with it.
To this day I have no idea how much was sitting there, but it was more money than I’d ever seen in one place in my life.
Naturally, all kinds of thoughts started running through my head.
This just isn’t a situation a person finds themselves in very often.
But along with the surprise came a strange feeling that I shouldn’t be there.
Something told me it was time to leave.
So I left.
End of story.
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As for the prompt itself…
I’d use it to help people who actually need it.
The funny thing is, I can still do this without an unlimited budget.
Every little bit helps.
Every little bit counts.
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