Although I am getting better, I frequently suffer from missing tile syndrome. I first read about this psychological defect in “Happiness is a Serious Problem” by Dennis Prager.
Imagine looking at a beautifully tiled ceiling. Now picture realizing that one tile is missing. My instinctive response is to find it and fix it! However, if I am not careful, that missing tile can become all that I can see.
It describes the all too frequent tendency to focus on the one small thing that is wrong in our life rather than all that right. That was starting to happen with my purchase of the Toyota’s engine and transmission. I think I have gotten a great deal but…
“I saved $50 on the transmission shipping costs. I wonder if I could have saved on the engine’s shipping costs from California? Why didn’t I think of that?”…
“I wonder if I really did get a good deal?”
I decided to put an end to this conversation.
I called the local repair shop down the street and told them that I needed to replace the engine and transmission in my ’92 Paseo.
He called me back late this evening…
“I haven’t got a call back from the junkyard yet but you are looking at around $1,600.”
I thought, “Well, shoot, that is what it is costing me now.”
“…for the engine. Then, probably another $1,000 for the transmission. If you add in all of the labor, you could be looking at $5-6,000.”
You know, that missing tile doesn’t look so bad. No, I think that I like my ceiling just the way it is.
