"On Debts"

debt:  n.  Money that one person or entity owes or is required to pay to another, generally as the result of a loan or other financial transaction.  The state or condition of owing something to someone.

The clematis is in full bloom, the vine reaching up and spilling over the fence, its large purple blossoms resembling velvet.  It is a beauty, one of four taken from a client’s garden when he asked that they be removed.  Of those four, which found their way into my own garden, this one is my favorite.

This same client refused to pay me for work rendered, asserting I had taken too long to bill him.  No argument or defense can be offered as he was correct.  At the end of a long gardening day invoicing is often postponed, and I was negligent in billing him in a timely manner.  In spite of my procrastination, though, a pretty tidy chunk of change was owed for work done in the heat and dust of summer, satisfying the criterion of debt.

A debt is owed to another; it is an obligation.  Perhaps it is money owed for a service provided, as in completed gardening work, or for a product purchased.  Some view indebtedness as the result of personal assistance given or received, be it physical, spiritual, mental, or emotional with no monetary compensation in play.  For example, the phrase “I owe you,” even “I owe you big time,” is often the response when assistance or aid is given.

Personally, I choose not to live my life as though it was a balance sheet, where assets and liabilities are tallied up, kept track of.  Given those conditions, it is my feeling the sincerity and purity of a kind deed or act is negated.  A favor should not be treated as a business transaction, with repayment expected or required. 

My former client moved to New York, and he was entered in my tax records as a “bad debt.”  I think of him occasionally when my clematis are in bloom.  While there is no grudge carried, no animosity, I do remember him and the debt he walked away from.  My gardening business is now in its 12^th year, and he is the sole client who openly refused to pay.  Sometimes I wonder what has happened to him, how his life has gone, and whether it was worth it to dodge an unpaid debt.  What a sad statement of a life to have left this mark, this memory.

The manner in which one lives his/her life matters, as impressions and impacts are made on the lives of others, either a positive or a negative. 

A friend wanted to appear at his front door and introduce himself to this client on my behalf, seeking payment.  Others suggested he be turned over to a collection agency.  I respectfully refused those options.  It is my feeling a higher justice is in play in my life and by unequivocally refusing to pay a debt owed, he placed himself in a higher court, one where he no longer answers to The Traveling Gardener, but to God. 

Make no mistake—collection will be made, justice served.   

“Owe no one anything, except to love one another….”  Romans 13:8 
"Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God; for it is written 'Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.'"  Romans 12:19