Reward

A sore shoulder declared my purse too heavy and mandated a pocketbook purge.  I dumped the handbag’s contents in a heap. The site of a bulging wallet among the miscellany was unexpected because it strained with effort against snaps ready to release their duty of holding two flaps of brown leather together.  I wondered, could there be cash I don’t know about? Alas, no, it was a collection of membership reward cards accumulated beyond capacity. 

 

Reward is defined at dictionary.com.
1.  a sum of money offered for the detection or capture of a criminal, the recovery of lost or stolen property, etc.
2.  something given in return or recompense for service, merit, hardship, etc.

 

I accept the marketing prowess behind reward cards.  I am not pointing a disapproving finger at having them.  I think a savvy shopper rightly reaps benefits from regular purchases, accumulating perks for products.  But I worry that reward may lessen the gratification of an item bought and further encourage us to be rampant consumers.  I myself read coupons at the bottom of a receipt which oblige I shop with my reward card and then maybe decide I require different hair products or a teeth whitening regimen or a double scoop sundae when just a moment before I had no inclination of need.  

I am not suggesting that shopping at a specific store because they reward us is wrong, but that we might consider if we are drawn to buy more than we might otherwise.  Mindlessly purchasing products only to save $2 or reach preferred customer status or get free fries might not benefit us.  Do I need a reward for everything I buy, every place I visit, every treat I eat?  Am I letting myself be trained like a puppy to perform certain tricks for a treat?  Without care, we might lose sight of our current actions with our eyes on a future prize instead.  Moving our attention from present actions to future recompense takes us away from the moment where we might find pleasure or joy in what is now. 

When I flipped through my cards, many were for stores I have not been in for ages.  Over time, I always answered affirmatively about accepting any and every reward membership.  They wanna give me something for being a customer?  Oh yeah!  Faced with the physical sight of having said yes to so many cards in hopes of the promise of reward surprised me because I had used my wallet daily without seeing.  The cards were not bearing the large part of excess weight of my purse, but trashing most of them so that my wallet was not pulling at the seams was the perfect start to the tossing of other, weightier junk that cluttered my purse. 

The reward of a thing well done is having done it.
                                                - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Infinite striving to be his best is man’s duty; it is
its own reward.  Everything else is in God’s hands.
                                  - Mahatma Gandhi