The Cup

The Disney Resorts have a cup you can purchase for somewhere north of $15. This cup can be refilled multiple times with soft drinks at resort soda machines. Embedded within the cup is a chip (RFID I imagine) that keeps track of the use of the cup. The cup has a life span, after a certain date it can no longer be used.

We had an older version of the cup in the past. This version did not have a chip so we would bring it along with us on our trips to once again partake in the soda offered at the resorts. Well Disney must have frowned upon that practice so the new technology renders my old cup useless at the resort machines.

Now I have never gotten a new cup, because typically it is more convenient and cost effective to have soda shipped to my room from local grocery stores. Nowadays I just stop at the supermarket to get some drinks before going to the parks. However, one day we were traveling to the Magic Kingdom on the monorail when Katie noticed an abandoned cup nestled on the top portion of one of the seats. She motioned to it and indicated that I should claim it. Now this raises some interesting moral and ethical questions. Is claiming an abandoned cup on the monorail unethical? Is it gross? Well I claimed the abandoned cup.

 My son was appalled at my taking of the cup believing it to be a moral transgression. He began to loudly say that we should not be taking the cup. Perhaps it is indicative of the morality of the situation that we were hushing him and embarrassed. Yet what does a child understand about the cost of cups, proper and what is truly just?

The tried and true doctrine of finder keeper loser weeper clearly governed this situation. Sure I imagined there was some flustered family, disgruntled, agitated, possibly berating some young child for being so careless. However, my claiming of the cup on the monorail would not change that scenario. Too late for that. I could turn it into lost and found, but I envision it would just end up in a huge storage area like Indiana Jones' Ark of the Covenant, or simply tossed. Truly we were just taking advantage of our good fortune. Good fortune must be seized when it presents itself. Or perhaps  I am simply compensating for the slight pang of guilt I felt for that imaginary disgruntle family.

Then there is the gross factor. For whatever reason claiming a plastic cup used by someone else feels gross. I envision some horrendously disgusting person with sores on their lips slurping loudly from the cup just before they carelessly lost it. Now this really makes no sense. Everyday people go to restaurants and bars and drink from glasses that thousands of people drank from before who had who knows what disease. Maybe the humidity and constant sweating conjures these images in my head. Regardless, the answer to gross out factor is just to clean the cup well.

So now I have the cup and it is good until mid-July (or so the resort machines tell me). Sometimes you just have to count your blessings.

-Tod-

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