I Heart You – IOU

Anne was cleaning off her desk the other day and found a little treasure, a handmade envelope containing thirteen handmade coupons. One of the boys must have made it for Mothers Day. I suspect that it was Danny. Two of the coupons read “Free get along with my bro” and “free be quiet”. He would have thought those deeds more important than Dave. Another tale tell coupon read, “$1.00 down on mowing the grass”. Anne always thought that I paid the boys too much for mowing the lawn. Dan did more mowing too.

The style and handwriting of the various coupons speaks of elementary school, which is likely twenty plus years now in the past. This begs the question have all these lovely coupons languished so long that now they are worthless? Certainly, the coupon that read, “Go play Minesweeper for an hour” has lost value. Likewise, “Watch the show you want” or “Free turn down the TV”. Some still would have value if they could still be redeemed, “Free help clear the table”, “Breakfast in bed on any one Sunday” or the baker’s dozen, bonus coupon, “Vacuuming with a clean room”. Some implicitly retain value, like the “I [heart] U” one pictured above, or “Good for one hug”. One is explicitly still good, “I love you, Mom! (Never expires)”.