A Different Perspective

 

Yesterday...  I went to my wife's hair stylist for my quarterly hair cut (cost:  $20) and it takes about 20 minutes not including the conversation that sometimes is involved...  My appointment was his first, and I had to wait in his chair for him to arrive as he was running late.

During the experience, he just "out of the blue," made the statement that the US was turning into a 3RD WORLD COUNTRY and that politicians on both sides have allowed this to happen over the last 50 years and did nothing about it...  I asked him why he felt that way...  his response was, "this kind of stuff does not happen over night..."

My wife's hair stylist is a high school dropout...

He also informed me that for the last year he has been asking high school girls who have made appointments with him what they have learned in school or what they might have learned today, and the overwhelming response by them was...  NOTHING...  I LEARNED NOTHING TODAY...

Now, this may not be indicative of the entire USA or even the entire State of Tennessee, but it is still scary...  What supports this for me is the fact that I have been teaching college students night courses in business since 2015 and have come into contact with the following:

• My college students read at a Junior High School level
• My college students write at a Junior High School level
• My college students present at a Junior High School level
• My college student don't do homework
• My college student don't prepare for class
• My college students want to be told exactly what to do
• My college students don't have critical thinking skills
• My college students don't have problem solving skills
• My college students don't work well together in teams
• My college students don't have self starting skills

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

Imagination

"Imagination is more important than knowledge..."  Albert Einstein

Imagination is the ability to produce and simulate novel objects, peoples and ideas in the mind without any immediate input of the senses. Wikipedia

When was the last time that you imagined something?

When was the last time you spent a little time daydreaming?

When was the last time you imagined a better life for you (and your family)?

Children are really good at using their imaginations but as we age and become adults, we have a tendency to move away from using our imaginations because we make the false assumption that we are being childish; however, if and when we try to share our imagination with other adults we will probably be told that we are being childish.

As a writer/poet, I use my imagination all the time and then make the attempt to put than imagination into words with which others can identify.  Sometimes, I am successful and sometimes I am not, but I never stop using my imagination, especially at night...  I use my imagination to pretend that I am in a different environment, experiencing whatever I want to experience...  and sometimes, I get hung up on details of of room for instance, and before I realize it, I have been sleeping and when I wake up it is morning.