Is There Tax On That?

After so many years of listening to self-help gurus, Drivel became one. He borrowed phrases and ideas from many of the people he had followed. Mike Maverick tried to sue him from prison, but his case was thrown out.

“You don’t believe half of what you say,” I said to Drivel when I ran into him at the gym.  We laughed.

“I don’t have to believe it, I just have to sell it,” he said as his smile faded. “Just like it was sold to me.”

I thought I understood his anger, he had been conned time and again.  But unlike Maverick, Drivel had a conscience.  Selling something he didn’t believe in was going wear on him.

“Some things are taxed more than others,” I said. He looked at me blankly. “One thing I learned from people who had to pay for expensive habits - you can’t sell your body or your integrity without taxing your soul.”

“You’re worried I’ll sell this body?” he asked. He was joking, but I didn’t laugh.

“I’m worried about you selling your integrity.”

He nodded, stared at his shoes, and then walked to a machine on the other side of the gym.  As we were both leaving later that day he said, “Good thing heroin wasn’t your drug of choice. What would you sell?”

“I couldn’t raise enough to order from the dollar menu at McDonalds,” I said. “You could. If you tried real hard and found a dollar on the sidewalk. Maybe.” 

We traded insults. We laughed, but I worried about him.

Today I won’t sell my integrity at any price.

Burnout Training ©2018 by Ken Montrose

Burnout Training is a work of fiction. Any similarity between the characters and anyone you might know is purely coincidental.

Other works by Ken Montrose are available at: www.greenbriartraining.com https://www.pinterest.com/kenmontrose/mt-rose/