Minecraft, But Not Mine

We all love the Facebook free stuff page. Strangers from the internet begging other strangers who live close to them to take their stuff they don’t need. If you’re trying to get rid of something, it’s great. If you don’t need anything but want to own a bunch of stuff you don’t need, it’s really great. I browse my local free pages every so often and see things I don’t need but want. I reach out and usually I am not quick enough to get them. There are two objects that were posted in which I was the first to respond and therefore the winner — a coffeemaker and a piñata. This story is about the piñata.

In an effort to remain more present and not on my phone as much, I turned off all notifications on my phone. I don’t know when I get an email or text or someone liked my Instagram post. It was wild at first because I’m an actor, I crave constant gratification. But I’m starting to get used to it and it’s nice. I’m not in a position where anyone ever needs me to immediately check my texts. I can always respond whenever I get a chance to. If someone needs me, let’s say to uh pick up an old Minecraft piñata of theirs they no longer want, I’m kind of unreachable until I can be. This proved to not be ideal in a free Facebook object pickup.

I saw on the free Facebook page one morning that someone was giving away a Minecraft piñata. The kids I nanny absolutely love Minecraft so I thought this would be a cute thing for them to have. Plus it was free on my part so why not? I reached out and what do ya know, no one else wanted it. Score. It’s mine. All I have to do was go pick it up. I Facebook messaged the person Monday. I didn’t grab it until Thursday. It was a long week of “sorry I missed your message” and “that’s fine can you get it tomorrow?”. Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow creeps in this petty pace until you check your Facebook messages for the last time and grab the piñata you want.

I want to believe people are inherently good. I really do. But. Sometimes I have an encounter with a human that makes me question everything I believe in. There are always two sides to every story, right? So when you have an encounter that leaves a sour taste in your mouth you can always remember someone else could be going through something that you just didn’t know about. The reason they behaved in a way that was unideal to you is because they themselves had something else they were dealing with. People just don’t do things that are wrong because they are bad. People are just, spacey. Right?

I grabbed the piñata and ran back to my car with pure glee. The children I’m responsible for will finally like me after all this time. A free thing. A free symbol of the thing they love. Score. The piñata, however, was heavier than I thought it would be. On first glance into it, I saw it was full of candy. There was no mention in the post this piñata would be full of candy. “Odd”, I thought to myself. But an opportunity! I could clean the outside wrappers and give the kids not only a piñata but CANDY. When I got home and dumped out all the candy, I saw that it was not only full of candy but candy WRAPPERS. Empty pieces of candy fell onto my floor that included lollipop sticks still damp from a child’s spit. In the middle of pandemic, I am sitting with a pile of germs from the mouthes of people I do not know.

Did this person give me their trash because they didn’t want to deal with it? Possibly. A busy parent with a house full of kids and a full time job! They don’t have the TIME to throw away a piñata. Did their kids sneak into the piñata when their parents weren’t looking and threw the trash back into it? Aka this person had no idea they were giving me a cardboard box filled with vapors from their children’s mouth holes? Possibly, yes. God, I hope so.

I choose to believe this stranger didn’t willingly give me a death piñata. I want to believe there is still some good left in this world. Not people on Facebook pawning off their garbage to strangers. There is always two sides to every story and I do not blame this person just trying to make the most out of this Minecraft piñata. What I’m really trying to say here is, I don’t blame the parents I blame the kids. Children are gross. Trust me, I was one.