What's mine is yours, or is it?

Covid-19 has created two kinds of people. There are those who have become exceedingly frugal and careful and cut back on expenses in order to ensure their two ends at least talk to each other. Then there are those who have thrown caution beyond the winds and splurging like there is no tomorrow. Maybe they know something we do not. Now, that is a worrying thought.

The first lot are counting their fils and saying, no, no, no, avoid the expenditure, and the second lot are pulling out all the good stuff they had kept in the boxes for special occasions and saying, let's use it and have fun?

Which one are you? It is true that under stress and in unusual negative circumstances we become different people, capable of massive acts of generosity and also incredibly miserly acts. According to the Greater Good Science Center, research has revealed that currents of generosity also run deep through us. "Indeed, generosity has its roots not just in our individual development but also in our very biology and evolutionary history. The broad occurrence of generosity across species suggests that generosity may be an evolutionary adaptation that has helped promote the survival of these species - and our own."

So, if we are wired as a species to be largehearted what is it that makes some of us act the opposite and become niggardly? The American Psychiatric Association says that a crisis condition sets off a unique thought process. "Money is viewed as something to be hoarded for future catastrophes." It becomes an armour and giving any of it away is a chink in that armour. So you just batten the hatches, so to speak, and tighten the purse strings. That hanging onto your stash becomes a protection and if that floats your boat all you do is miss the high of giving.

Ask yourself if you have seen a change in your priorities these past few weeks. Have you discovered you are more giving, less possessive and things that you coveted have kind of lost their sheen and no longer demand to be coveted?

A doctor friend of mine is category II. He says he has pulled out all slots and is using the best stuff they have kept locked away, from sheets to crockery to silverware to that brand new blender they hadn't used. He grins and confesses he had kept several expensive shirts and two pairs of custom-made shoes for over a year without wearing them. That is over.

The only problem with generosity is that no good deed goes unpunished.