Brownies and Potato Oles

Last week Tyler Brown and I spent a day giving each other a hard time and mocking the other person. Somebody noticed the trend and pointed it out to us. The person went so far as to say to us “are you treating the other person the way you want to be treated?” We agreed that they had a point.

So we reversed course and started being nice to each other. Not really all that hard since I like Tyler. It shouldn’t be too hard to be nice to somebody you like and respect.

Instead of trading barbs and insults we were civil.

Last night my wife served brownies to my son’s friends when they stopped over. Because I knew that they were Tyler’s favorite snack I brought one to him.

Then at lunch Tyler went to Taco Johns. He even sat down next to me and starting eating his meal. No big deal. The room was full of other people eating.

No big deal that is if you don’t know the Chapin family. Let me give you some background. My family has an unhealthy attachment to Potato Oles, literally. The point wasn’t missed on Misty Lauer. She started to laugh as soon as Tyler sat down.

So what did Tyler do?

He shared his Potato Oles with me. (Sue isn’t going to be happy to learn that she made the bars but I got the Oles).

I am not suggesting that we should live in a world where we keep score and figure that if I bring you a snack you should “repay” me. Neither Tyler nor I were expecting to be paid for our actions. It was just a natural outgrowth of treating people the way we wanted to be treated. It worked when we were mean to each other and quickly turned 180 degrees when we were nice to each other.

Thank you Tyler for the unintended example (and Potato Oles).

Luckily we work at a place that has treating other as you want to be treated as a core value. Now I just need to make sure I live up to that standard.