Every first year law student learns about the "eggshell plaintiff". This was a big case back in the day when railroads were new and suddenly there were injuries and lawsuits over the injuries. I'll paraphrase the case and its ruling in today's terms.
You drive your car through an intersection against a red light and hit another car. The accident is clearly your fault. However, because you were only going 15 miles an hour, it isn't a bad accident. But other driver dies. She dies because her head banged back against the headrest and hit a spot that just happened to be weak due to a previously undiagnosed birth defect of a very fragile skull -- an eggshell head (it's law school..wake up and stick with me here).
The point is that if you had hit an otherwishe healthy "normal" adult, the woman would not have died. At most she would have a bad neck ache. You hit the wrong person.
Her estate sues you for damages ($$). Your defense is that you will pay for the damage to her car and for what it would have cost to treat a sore neck, but it was really the birth defect that killed her, not your negligence in hitting her car. Not your fault that she has an "eggshell" head.
Who wins?
The estate. "You take your plaintiff as you find him (or her)." That's one of the first lessons we learned in law school. If you have a duty of care and breach it, you are responsible even if you had no idea you were going to hit someone with a weak head bone.
So where is this going, other than boring you have to death with legal stuff?
Apparently I have the equivalent of an eggshell ego. Every time I sit down to stamp I remember that someone on the internet referred to me as a stamper "with more cash than talent." Now, in all honesty, given the choice, I would take the cash. I have to live, and I've yet to meet a stamper who is making a living wage at this craft.
Nevertheless, as silly, foolish, and self absorbed as it is, that comment struck a bone. Since it was anonymous, I wonder who it was and how many agreed with it. Every time I sit down to stamp, I second and third and fourth guess every move I make. I just can't stamp.
I'm an idiot for over reacting. But if I feel this way, I bet there are many others who feel a lot worse when they read similar things about themselves online. I learned a lesson this past month and that is that words have a lot of power. You never know who (or why) someone has an eggshell head.
And to avoid turning this post into something about me, and not about the power of careless words, I'm turning off comments.
I'll be back! Hopefully, with a picture of a card and not more words....
