Thursday, February 21, 2008

I Know Your Heart By Your Stated Values

I started working and earning wages when I was 11 years old. Though my family was poor and we were all expected to help financially as a sort of collective, my parents never instilled in me the idea that money was the highest value in life. I don't know how it happened, but for me I never really valued the dollar other than as a medium through which I could obtain the necessities of life.
Many who know me will say, I often seemed to have more than just the necessities of life. They would remind me that I had nice homes to live in, and a good car, clothes, and enough money to travel and enjoy the world. True, but money was not my reason for living.
I am saddened by people who judge everyone by the money they have. I have heard people say, "He has a lot of money. Look how he is so smart and sharp."
What is it that makes people believe that the ability to get money has anything to do with intelligence and brilliance."

Many of the richest people who have ever existed were poor, just as many poor people lived the richest lives on earth.

It costs nothing to sit on the beach and luxuriate in the richness of the sun, sea and sky God has made for us. The enjoyment of a strong wind against your face on a brisk morning is a very rich gift anyone who so chooses can enjoy over and over.
The droll task of gathering piles of money and hording it in a dry bank account or a safe is never as fulfilling as a dive into a powerful wave just before it crashes onto the beach.

The Holy Spirit within each of us is reaching out to us saying'" enjoy this God made it, and He made it for you to enjoy and see Him within His creation." This is why we feel so overpowered and "Awful" when we witness and enjoy the overpowering feeling of Nature, It puts into proper perspective. We are small and we see our tiny forms against the enormous backdrop of the Natural world. God made us so to remind us He is in the Nature we behold, and we are to stand in awe of it and of Him. In doing so, we worship Him through the pleasure of His creation. I don't see or hear any mention of Dollars or the puny material things we gather with us along the short trip on this planet. And guess what? When we go, all that stuff stays.

Thus, it is the smart man who learns to give value to the natural beauty of earth; not the man made things that will rot and lose value. An Egyptian who put a pile of gold in his Pyramid is long gone as is the gold. The sunset over the Nile river which he may have enjoyed one time in his life is still there today, and just as beautiful and Awe inspiring today as it was thousands of years ago.

Some people think I am a fool because I did have some money at one point in my life, and I let it go. I could not hold on to it, and it did not hold on to me. I was washed clean of nearly every material possession I had ever struggled to acquire. Yet I am not saddened or humiliated. People who knew me when I was a successful Corporate leader and owner of my own business may say to others, "Isn't it a shame what happened to him. He used to have so much..."

I can only tell them I still have much. I have memories of helping some people in my life, and I can still see the smiles on the faces of those few I made happy in my special way. I only regret there weren't more. Giving has been a great joy in my life. With every cent I "lost" by giving to others, I gained something that money can't buy.

I have been chided recently because I have an MBA, and some people near me question why I am not making money with my 16 years of education. I can only look back and recall that the Liberal Arts and academic background I acquired was done so with a love for learning;not a love for the money it would bring to me. I was actually surprised throughout my life that in some small way it aided in helping me make money. For many of the things I learned in school were only ethereal thoughts, ideas and philosophies.

Getting back to my parents, they were poor, but they were compassionate. They shared what little they had. My Pop only earned about $70-80 a week and my Mom worked in a factory assembling electronics. I am amazed that in the late 50's-early 60's they were able to send six children through private school. I was the most ungrateful child of the lot, and I gave them a hard time because I wanted more than they could give. In truth, like the Widow's Mite they gave the most and received the least in return.
I suppose later in life they were made to feel better for their sacrifices by having three of the six children receive college degrees and then see them raise Families and make a decent living. Both parents were very proud of us, though my Father, naturally, had a harder time showing his emotions on this issue. My Mom made up for it by showering us with hugs and kisses at every new graduation or academic achievement.
Yet, through it all both stressed the need for art and music. There was a richness in my home that I ,frankly, did not see at the time. However, I do recall seeing my father well up with tears as he watched an emotional Musical with Jeanette McDonald and Nelson Eddie. There was never an emphasis on money. Talent, and honor and honesty were praised more than the love of money.
I was a Boy Scout, and my Mom was so honored when both Me and my older brother became Eagle Scouts. She loved being in the Eagle Mothers society, and attended long after my brother and I grew out of Scouting.
Again, I am so disappointed to see the love-greed of money in some of our young today. Rap and Movie Stars, with their decrepit life styles are all OK. The first thing out of everyone around me when I offer criticism of these icons is," Yeah, but look at all the money they make..." It is like saying a corrupt and deviant lifestyle of drugs and booze and immorality is OK as long as the person is making money.
Money is to people today as the idols were to the primitive people of the ancient world. Anything goes as long as the person has money. Another thing that bothers me is that so many people seem convinced that if a person has money that person is always right.

You can't say anything that is credible unless you have money. Sometimes people close to me ask my opinion about something. I give it freely, and then the next day I get, " Oh! You know I asked [a friend who has a lot of money] He told me what you said was right."
"Wow! I am glad to hear that. I bet if I told you the sun will rise tomorrow at 7:16 AM you wouldn't believe me unless you first checked my bank balance." Why has the possession of money suddenly become equated with having brains??
I can tell you this, and please believe me even if I am poor; If you can only give value and credence to a person who has a certain amount of money your heart is not in the right place. Your values are clouded by dollar signs, and you may begin to lose the ability to see the spectacular treasure of a sunrise on the ocean horizon at 7:16 Am tomorrow. At that point you will have become like the many poor bastards who can't see the beauty of a bright blue sky for the dollar signs cataracts clouding their eyes.

Friday, February 1, 2008

How Did I Get Here??

Have you ever looked around at your present setting; situation, Community, and partner, and asked. "How did I get here?"

Don't be surprised many of us ask the same question almost everyday. The answer is usually we listened to others. When you were young and dating someone, say in high school, did you start to feel obligated to being with that person because all your classmates knew that the two of you were "dating". That meant you were to "be with" that person, and if you were seen alone people would ask " Where's ...??". Like you weren't you if you weren't with the person everybody thought you should be with.
People are "Channeled" through life on the same type of "Social Rail" track. You are always asked what you are going to "Be"when you grow up. So much so, that you have to say something, or you will be made to feel like an idiot if you don't have an answer. I'm not just talking about the 50's and 60's generation. It still happens today. "What are you going to do? Who are you going to be? Who are you going to marry? It just goes on and on. You are not a complete person in the eyes of others if you haven't the right answers.
Once you give an answer, you are locked on to that track, and many people feel helpless about getting off it. Sometimes when prople try to get off the track they are made to feel like they did something wrong, or worse yet, that something is wrong with them. " Hey what happen to whatshername? You two were great together. What did you do that you're not together with...?" See, automatically, you did something wrong [mostly it was that you threw people off by making a change].

People don't really like change. When things change they have trouble keeping up. So it is better for them if you stay with the same person, keep the same career, and remain on their track where they have you set in their minds. We all seem to being "Railroaded" througout life.

What happens if the train does not arrive on time, and at the station you expected it, or if it does arrive, and you get on and find it is going to a different place. That screws thngs up, and we all know it.

So, it we are ingrained with the idea that we should stay with the high sschool sweetheart; persue the career we told everyone we were going into; be in the community we fit into.

Then when we reach a point where we get just enough time to turn around and look back down the track we say to ourselves:
"How did I get here?"