a couple weeks back I went hiking on the Red River. Took my daughter along. Its about 10 hours drive from here so it was quite a drive. While we were there we collected some rocks from the river area and tossed them in the back of the truck. On the way back we were stopping here and there for food and we were talking about how we should offer to trade some of the rocks from the Red River for hamburgers or things like that. We thought it was funny because the idea of trading a rock for a meal just seemed silly, but we talked it up as if it was possible, after all they were from the Red River. How many of you have rocks from the Red River after all. On the way back I got a chip in the windshield. Too many rocks on the Texas highways I suppose. This week I decided to have a windshield guy do his best to patch up the chip in my windshield for 25 bucks. I was telling him about the trip to the Red River and I showed him the rocks in the back of the truck. He said "Hey, maybe I should trade you this windshield work for one of those rocks from the Red River". I told my kid about it later and we were laughing for 5 minutes.

I know you are simply sharing this story for our amusement (and it is funny!), yet it also touches on some serious questions. I've had things like this happen a great deal in my life, especially after doing a lot of yoga and meditation. Do you think its possible you actually -communicated- this idea to this guy, nonverbally? We have unconscious body-language cues related to perceptions of worth/value/attachment/willingness. Maybe we also have them for notions of trade? Surely our ancestors (maybe even pre-human) had a need to 'trade' on some level long before we had language, perhaps we unknowingly have subtle nonverbal cues left over for communicating possibilities of trade.

I honestly think your own previous dwelling on the possibility of trading those rocks directly facilitated his comment.

Philosopher,I see 2 people voted to delete - I think you posted this in the right forum. It is a story, and some people it funny.

i clicked to NOT delete. it is funny so there

I voted do not delete

Well, its not exactly a joke, which is usually posted here. There is the title of funny story though so I thought maybe it qualified under that definition.

I voted do not delete subject is jokes and funny stories and I think it qualifies as such

I'll trade you a cheeseburger for one of those red river rocks!
That was funny and nice...