My niece visited this weekend.Listening to: This Scottish singer/songwriter rocks -- and all by herself!
Bliss: The taste of our very first, homegrown apple. Dee-licious. The rabbit got a bite, too, and it was rabbit approved! Giggling with that blonde-tressed girl in the above photo and getting lots and lots of hugs.
When my partner and I were buying our house, the bank told us we could afford about twice what we ended up spending. We knew we wanted more in our life than a big house and we knew having more of what we wanted meant making some choices.
I think about this when I think about the whole bailout thing, and it leads me to think about how the bailout is simply a symptom of a much larger and deeper sickness...and I am not talking about interest rates or money down or anything like that.
I am talking about a sickness of the soul variety.
So many human beings are living lives of such emptiness that buying and consuming is all they have...and then there are the human beings who are willing to provide those things at any cost to us all. There are the users and there are the suppliers, and it's just as ugly a dance as the one taking place on an inner city street corner -- and both participants are being harmed by it, as is the surrounding "neighborhood."
How many humans today don't just work to keep up with the Jones' but also with the Hiltons? How many people think if they don't live like celebrities, they aren't living at all? How many people give up time with family to have a second job to have more things? Or just work an ungodly number of hours at one job to prove themselves...so they can have more things -- whether that be the bigger house or more expensive vacations or a larger savings account?
What are we sacrificing?
Everything.
Now I've said this before and I'll probably say it again: money is not bad in and of itself. It's what you willingly do for money that can be the problem.
Are you working a job that makes you feel like a completely fulfilled human being? Why not? And please, none of this "I have to" crap. I'm tired of that.
There are true "I have to's" out there, but I've only ever personally met a few (when I worked with Homeless mothers) and yet I've heard that phrase a million times. So who's saying it? Have you said it? Is it really true? Or do you believe it to be true? Or is it convenient to believe it's true because then you don't have to go out there and really live your life, take risks -- risks like maybe being deeply, joyfully happy.
I think most of us are whiners.
Yep, I just said that: Most of us are whiners. We just don't want to take responsibility for our mental, spiritual, physical, or intellectual health and fulfillment. It's way easier to complain, point, blame, and eat some more and drink some more and take another pill and live in the stupor of too much television and running around and shopping.
We are whiners and we are addicted to our whining and the lifestyle that comes of whining and now our economy is finally showing signs of that addiction. (The planet, on the other hand, has been showing signs all along, but too many of us don't care if we can still do what we do and not think about our children's children's children.)
Oh, dear, I just realized that PissedChick is writing this. So be it.
Here's what I think we don't deserve in this life:
We never deserve to not feel safe. And to know what I mean, read this.
We never deserve to be hungry. In a world of "liberals" and "Christians," I simply cannot understand how anyone is still going hungry. Liberals want a politician to feed everyone and too many Christians think God will. Well, we are the government and we are the divine agents on this planet, so go figure...
We never deserve to go without health care. Please, if you are a health care worker, don't talk to me about government and HMO's and all of that -- just get your ass out there and help someone, somewhere. (And if you don't want to, you're one of the someones who needs to be doing something else.)
And here's what we do all deserve and these are the truly good things:
We all deserve love in this life. I love this: Love is God. Keep saying that over and over until you feel it and know it in your bones, until it busts your heart wide open.
We all deserve peace in this life. I don't care what anyone says. We are born perfect. We are born calm. We are born to never yell, to never hit, to never hurt. We learn these behaviors. Are you teaching them to anyone lately?
We all deserve to be creative. Whether creativity for you involves numbers or music or drawing or building something or teaching. Do your thing; it's the only reason you were even born.
Regardless of your religious or spiritual views, one thing we know for sure -- this is it in terms of this particular version of you and this specific consciousness.
Stop putting off what you really want to do. You will die. Period.
You might be working a job that drains you to add to a retirement account that you might never get to use.
Your child will grow and you will have missed all that time with her or him.
For what?
(Right now, need be, PissedChick has grabbed you by the shoulders and is looking you right in the eye.)
Are you missing your own life for a bigger TV, for more clothes, for a false sense of security?
If you are, you are breaking my heart.
10 comments:
Bravo! PissedChick, you go and spread the word. That was a fabulous read and I will re-read it again later to really imprint it on my brain. We all need a good talking to now and again. Thank you.
Well said!
AMEN! I believe that is what a lots of human beings have been feeling whether they have been consciously aware of it or not. Add my Bravo!
Absofreakinglutely!
We have a small, charming 1925 home. We also could have "upgraded" to a bigger home and a bigger mortgage. But, the extra work and maybe having to work outside the home instead of being able to work for myself and be there for my kids wasn't worth it to me.
It is so sad, seeing people hate their lives and be worried all the time because they cared more what other people thought of them or thought that their stuff could make them feel better.
Oh ha ho ho! So good to hear you when you get all het up! Loads to think about and revisit as always! t.x
A-frickin'-men!
It seems to me like *everyone* is putting 100% of the blame on this latest crisis on the mortgage brokers and lenders. But what about the home buyers? Most (and I say "most" because there are some home buyers who were entirely innocent victims...) of the home buyers *knew* they couldn't afford that big house on their income, but they took out the loan anyways!
I'm afraid this is just another symptom of a deep societal problem. People (and especially people of my generation--GenX/Yers) want really, really nice things (and lots of them) NOW. Immediately. Meaning they don't have to work for them. I often think maybe it's because our parents' generation (the Baby Boomers) gave us everything in the world and so we grew up expecting to immediately have everything in the world, and when we found out we could charge everything in the world to our credit cards and that we COULD have it immediately, we did it. Because we are entitled to the best. Right?
But I digress.. A big problem is that people want to live like Paris Hilton without having to work for it, earn it--Not that Paris has! But the majority of wealthy people have worked hard to build a life for themselves...
When did we stop working hard and start acting like self-entitled brats?
Excellent!
It has been itching at me, this whole bailout thing. I could never have put it as well as you have!
I agree!
Though I'm definitely a whiner sometimes...
I'm taking your post as another in a series of things spurring me on to DO SOMETHING about some things in my life.
I'm always a bit...trepidatious about letting PissedChick out and letting her have control of the keyboard, so it is with relief that I read your comments and see that she is, as usual, well understood. Emma, I'm totally curious about what changes you will be making?...And welcome, Beth. Amy, about the generational thing. I think you are onto something, but I think it actually starts way before GenX. After WWII, actually, is when it really got going. The government had to force all these women out of their jobs to make room for the returning men, as you know, but what a lot of people don't know (and this is historically documented) is that they then pulled an invention out of the closet that they had known about for a couple of decades but had seen no use for -- the television. They determined that the way to placate these out of work women was to convince them that they were now in charge of the domestic sphere and to give them something to focus on, the government basically created the idea of advertising un-needed things. Now women were officially in charge of all the buying and the TV would be their guide. Crazy!
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