R
RicciP
Guest
Hi. I do not consider myself spiritual, but I was raised catholic and I would like some spiritual advice to try and feel better about myself, which is why I am here.I hope you don’t mind. Something which should be very trivial happened today but it is upsetting me.
I had a very little bump, in my car, while parking in a particularly awkard space. There is almost no sign of damage to my own car, but there was a small scratch to the car next to mine. An elderly man owned it. He didn’t see the collision but I explained what had happened to him and apologised and offered to put it right.
We were near a local mechanic’s so I asked them for a quote to paint over the scratch, which is about $160 in US dollars. The reason it is this expensive is because the mechanics have to throw away the rest of the paints that they don’t use once they’re opened. I am going to pay this because he is fully entitled to it, and I’m morally obliged to fix what I did, but at the same time I feel a little bit hurt because for the size of the scratch I would never have accepted that much money from anybody if it was my car. The car was old, and looks in poor condition so cosmetically I do not see any reason to have it fixed, other than diy touch up to to protect a finger-end patch of rust that is now exposed.
I’m left feeling terrible about myself, and have a guilty conscience that I can’t shake off. He kept telling me about he and his partner’s medical conditions, how expensive it is for them to rent and that the rest of their family are too far away to support them. He wasn’t trying to get more money out of me, he just wanted to let me know how much I had affected him by bumping his car.
I am helping him to get everything sorted out now, and he thanked me a couple of times for my being helpful but I don’t feel like I was forgiven.
I don’t want to feel guilty the way I do because it was an honest to goodness accident that I am trying to put right, and at the same time I don’t want to feel resentful at spending so much money on such a small amount of damage, which I myself would brush off. But I do, a little bit. It makes me not want to be as generous with strangers as I have been in the past, and I keep thinking if in future I am in his shoes, I wouldn’t brush off a little bit of damage to my car, I’d also want it payed for because of what has happened here.
Please help me to be rational if you can.
Thank you.
I had a very little bump, in my car, while parking in a particularly awkard space. There is almost no sign of damage to my own car, but there was a small scratch to the car next to mine. An elderly man owned it. He didn’t see the collision but I explained what had happened to him and apologised and offered to put it right.
We were near a local mechanic’s so I asked them for a quote to paint over the scratch, which is about $160 in US dollars. The reason it is this expensive is because the mechanics have to throw away the rest of the paints that they don’t use once they’re opened. I am going to pay this because he is fully entitled to it, and I’m morally obliged to fix what I did, but at the same time I feel a little bit hurt because for the size of the scratch I would never have accepted that much money from anybody if it was my car. The car was old, and looks in poor condition so cosmetically I do not see any reason to have it fixed, other than diy touch up to to protect a finger-end patch of rust that is now exposed.
I’m left feeling terrible about myself, and have a guilty conscience that I can’t shake off. He kept telling me about he and his partner’s medical conditions, how expensive it is for them to rent and that the rest of their family are too far away to support them. He wasn’t trying to get more money out of me, he just wanted to let me know how much I had affected him by bumping his car.
I am helping him to get everything sorted out now, and he thanked me a couple of times for my being helpful but I don’t feel like I was forgiven.
I don’t want to feel guilty the way I do because it was an honest to goodness accident that I am trying to put right, and at the same time I don’t want to feel resentful at spending so much money on such a small amount of damage, which I myself would brush off. But I do, a little bit. It makes me not want to be as generous with strangers as I have been in the past, and I keep thinking if in future I am in his shoes, I wouldn’t brush off a little bit of damage to my car, I’d also want it payed for because of what has happened here.
Please help me to be rational if you can.
Thank you.