The Poverty of Wealth

My life began on Halloween in 1947 and some might say that it was an auspicious occasion...  but, I say it was another one of those days when nothing out of the ordinary really happened...  I grew up in Alexandria, VA although my recorded place of birth was Raleigh, North Carolina and attended high school in Cairo, Egypt after which there was college, the military, more college, and a less than stellar 45 years of retirement before retirement got my goat.

Throughout my lifetime or call it what you will, I have experienced the following:

1. a life of wealth and privilege
2. a life of poverty and despair
3. a life with servants and cooks
4. several trips throughout Europe and the Middle East
5. several Caribbean, Mediterranean, and Hawaiian cruises
6. travels all over the United States
7. heart attack and cancer treatments
8. the sheer panic of almost dying in the ER
9. living from paycheck to paycheck
10. middle aged work as a hourly worker/laborer
11. the frustration and depression of unemployment
12. the constant lies of all politicians
13. the incompetent decisions of upper management
14. the harsh treatment of production quotas
15. the insane arrogance of the wealthy
16. the insincerity of both men and women
17. the lives wasted by fighting foreign wars
18. the demonstrations of civil disobedience
19. law enforcement people breaking the law
20. the stupidity of debt and becoming debt free

Not many people can say that they have done or experienced what I have done and there are no doubt many people who have done and/or accomplished much more than I... but my situation is good enough for me to say that I am simply glad and fortunate that I am not wealthy and will die almost in poverty...

Life is not about fighting wars, becoming wealthy, going to college, or earning as much money as you can for doing as little as you can.  Life is about life and living free and truly understanding what they freedom means...  and, that cannot be accomplished or experienced if you are blessed with wealth.

The more wealth and possessions you have the deeper into poverty you sink just like the sinker on the end of a fishing line.  The more knowledge you have the less you truly understand because academic knowledge is based on the thoughts of others and never on your own, otherwise you would be teaching the class and not someone else.

Knowledge can be found anywhere and especially now since we have the internet...  and knowledge is no longer limited to a college degree targeting a specific major but whatever you want to learn and understand...  it is all there...  for free...  except a monthly access fee which is a hell of a lot cheaper than going to college or university.

And, if you can go to college, you are smart and capable enough of teaching yourself!!!

The more wealth that one has the more wealth that one continues to want...  what is owned now is never enough...  a wealth addict is what you turn out to be...  wealth control you more than you control wealth which is why you can never stop...  look it up on the internet and see what disease you have if you don't believe me.

The moment you die you are as poor as you were at birth...  nothing has changed...  except you gained a lot of arrogance and were consumed by a will that was not your own...  but as old as life itself as well educated scientists are still trying to figure out HOW IT ALL STARTED...  their education has left them powerless to do anything more than speculate and form opinions based upon speculation and conjecture...  How smart has their educated lives become?

You don't need academic knowledge to become intelligent

You don't need wealth to become wealthy

You don't need life to learn how to die

Saturdays are Peaceful

                                          

Even though I am retired and cannot really tell one day from the next day, SATURDAYS are still special in that they remain, at least for me, peaceful...  that is to say that Saturdays reflect the end of a week's worth of labor and one can relax and simply enjoy the SLOW-PACED unfolding day...  and, while Sundays are another day off...  they are different because the next day we return to work whereas with Saturdays we still have another day off...

SATURDAYS for me are days of reflection, pondering what I cannot understand or will ever know, sitting on the porch witnessing the activities of my community neighbors (which is nothing done outside) and watching the animals, especially the rabbits and birds that enjoy safety and security on my property.

Spring, Summer, and Fall SATURDAYS are spent on the back screened-in porch contemplating the benefits and frustrations of still being alive in today's AMERICA...  an AMERICA that is divided along several lines of political ideologies and philosophies which has little to do with LIFE's PURPOSE...  at least as I see it.

Life is about LIFE which is about living and living is about appreciate and gratitude and that revolves around one's being given life (birth) and whether we wanted life or not is meaningless and irrelevant since life is what we have.

In other words, I did not REQUEST that I be given life via birth from my mother and yet, life is nonetheless what I have received; consequently, I am grateful for that life and appreciative for what that life has allowed me to SEE...  EXPERIENCE...  and DOUBT...

• We have not been designed (???) to live a long time.
• We have not been designed to live without food or oxygen.
• We have not been designed to want the same things.
• We have not been designed to think the same way.
• We have not been designed to serve each other.
• We have been designed to procreate.

WHY?

It seems inconceivable and illogical that human beings simply EVOLVED into what we are today and it seems inconceivable and illogical that we should only live 8 decades +/- and then we simply die and

it seems inconceivable and illogical that we have been given free will and choice during our lives but had no free will or choice with our births and deaths outside of suicides...  and yet, this is exactly what has taken place with our lives and with our living of those lives.

BUT, regardless of these inconsistencies, most of us do not appear to be appreciate of our own lives or the lives of our friends and neighbors and potential enemies and those we do not yet know or will never know...  and yet, WE ALL HAVE BEEN GIVEN LIFE.

• manufacturing of HATE also evolve inside of us over the years?
• Did the inability to show appreciation or gratitude evolve inside of us over the years?
• Did the desire to acquire wealth, position, and power evolve inside of us over the years?

SATURDAYS for me are days of reflection and pondering...  and, in so doing I am filled with an inner peace inside even though there is turmoil all around me.

Just Another Fairy Tale...

I started this BLOG in March 2020 because after writing down my thoughts each day since 2001, I decided what the f _ _ _, I might as well share them with others as I really have nothing to lose and perhaps nothing to gain either but at least it gave me something to do each day now that I was retired...

In just 3 quickly passing months and while my readership is still not as high as readers would like, I have been visited by people from TEN FRIGGING COUNTRIES...  and, for me that is a success...  and, worth my continued writing...  although, if no one had visited this BLOG I still would be writing and posting here because I am still retired and have nothing better to do...  seriously...

I retired 5 years ago after working for 45 years and it was not a day too soon either as I had gotten pretty fed up with the bullshits that exists in the workplace by little people who have acquired a little power...  and, what they have not realized yet is that power is not taken, it is earned and given to that person by the people who are their subordinates.

Similarly, in a DOMINANT/submissive relationship, the POWER given to the DOMINANT has been given willingly and voluntarily by the submissive...  so, who really has the power? 

ALSO similarly, are our lives here on earth and the fact that our lives (none of whom asked for birth) were given to us as a gift by GOD or our CREATOR or by whatever other name you want to use...  our birth did not come because any of us asked for it and our death will not arrive either because any of us asked for it...  OUR LIVES ARE BEING CONTROLLED by HE who some of us worship and in so doing give HIM power and DOMINION over us whether we want it or not...   and, that my friends is TRUE POWER...

Why were YOU in particular given birth by your parents???
And, did your mom really give birth to you in the sense of allowing you to grow in her womb?
Was your birth location predetermined?
Were your parents predetermined?
Was your face predetermined?

OR,

was this some crazy result of SCIENTIFIC EVOLUTION OF SPECIES...  that miraculously took place over millions of years...  starting with the BIG BANG and later a POOL OF LIFE from which the first one celled animal grew which later created animals with millions of cells which later and after numerous cell and DNA mutations created MANKIND and over time, evolution quite unscientifically created white, black, brown, olive, and red creatures all of whom would fight each other for domination...  because that fighting survival GENE had evolved from their original DNA...

JUST HOW MUCH BULLSHIT DO YOU WANT TO BELIEVE PEOPLE???