Picking Up the Tab for What We Just Ate

 I am back trying to get my unpublished book “The Split Second:  In Consideration of Others or Look Up from the Phone and How to Deal with Rudeness in Others” published. I will not give up for right now whatsoever; however, there is enough “pushback” against my concept of a society where we all get along and are nice to each other. Then there are others who motivate me to go on with this project. I am incredibly grateful to them.

This is the second blog of a three-part sort of offering (it might be more). I understand the script that says TLTR. I must admit that I gloss over some long offerings on Social Media posts myself. Then I tend to write long blogs myself. Oh well.

I have been discussing the concept of when two or more people go out for a meal in a restaurant, how should paying the bill be settled. I find there can be much confusion over this. I will discuss one practice that happens all too commonly when folks dine together. Often, one person of a couple or a group may announce “let’s split it” when the check comes. This can be very unfair to some people. I must think sometimes that the person who utters that phrase does not have simple mathematical skills.

Sometimes, I have found that the person who orders an appetizer, a side salad, the most expensive entrée, a luscious dessert, and several alcoholic drinks may be the one who makes that exclamation. That is not fair and that’s not right, particularly if another person in the group had only a small salad and a glass of water. I have a rule for this: if you order it, be prepared to pay for it—-the entire amount of what YOUR food costs. I have been the one who ordered very few items and no drinks when others at the table ordered lists of food and drink items. I have also been the one who ordered a few items, drinks, and the entrée was seafood. In the latter case, I am not going to make someone else at the table who did not order nearly as much pay for any part of my meal whatsoever.

The trick here is to do one’s best to compute how much her/his meal cost and not use a calculator to figure it out (and I have been with people who have done just that—not nice).

My book is about thoughtfulness for others. Many have told me that this is slipping away in society. I believe that we can truly become a society where we can all think of others as we “go out in the world.”  It must start somewhere.