I guess I am in a "high road" state of mind these days. That may be a natural defense mechanism to keep me away from sharp objects! At any rate I do find myself focusing on the positive aspects during these troubled times.
To that end I have been "taking stock" of late, of all my blessings, and there are many. It is awfully easy to look at the mess around us and despair at our plight, but that yields little fruit.
I am going to try to take a minute each day to do a little inventory of what really matters. For me that would be family, friends, health, and happiness. I started to put pets in there, but I was afraid it would make me sound somehow shallow and needy, so I will leave them out of this - -but you get my drift.
I am going to try and remember to tell those I care about how much they mean to me. It is good exercise, and I clearly need that. Speaking of that, for me health is a big issue. That is one area where work needs to be done, big time. I was always concerned that I would outlive my financial resources. After all $328.52 is not that much money! Now I worry that my money will outlast me by at least $250.
I suggest we all take stock each day. I think our treasure may be much greater than we think. It is really good exercise for the heart, and may well lift the days burdens from our shoulders. By the way, if you see me with a big old cheeseburger going toward my mouth, slap it out of my hand and tell me you love me. We will both feel better!
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Friday, February 20, 2009
"I'm Blessed"
I rolled into the drive up window at McDonalds this morning at 5:30. When the lady opened the window, I asked "how are you today". With a big smile on her face, she responded "I'm Blessed". From the looks of her, she had been up a lot longer than I had. From all the flour on her shirt, I am guessing that her work day started about 4:30 making biscuits for me.
She neglected to tell me that her 401-K was now a 201-K as we so often say, or that she was worried about the market. She never mentioned the unemployment rate, or the stimulus package.
With all the doom and gloom we are hearing today, we often forget just how blessed we really are. Shoes on our feet, food in the pantry, roof over our head, and clean water to drink, I guess that about covers it. Most of the world can not say yes to all of the above.
This lady, who I dare to say, does not have a job that most of us would trade for, made me stop and take stock this morning.
I'm blessed today, how about you?
She neglected to tell me that her 401-K was now a 201-K as we so often say, or that she was worried about the market. She never mentioned the unemployment rate, or the stimulus package.
With all the doom and gloom we are hearing today, we often forget just how blessed we really are. Shoes on our feet, food in the pantry, roof over our head, and clean water to drink, I guess that about covers it. Most of the world can not say yes to all of the above.
This lady, who I dare to say, does not have a job that most of us would trade for, made me stop and take stock this morning.
I'm blessed today, how about you?
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Stepping off the path
Most of us go through life saying that we would like to learn how to (insert your interest here) water ski, weld, learn Spanish, play the banjo, whatever. When you reach 55 or so your realize that you never did most of those things things, and worse yet, you never will. I am pretty sure at some point in my life, I could have learned to play a mean banjo. Heck, I already own the banjo. I had really good intentions.
So what happens to us that we don't go for it? We all have lots of excuses, the job, the family, money pressure, peer pressure, and the list goes on. For most of us it turns out that it is just a basic law of physics - - inertia! We all learned it in school, Sir Issac Newton defined it, the resistance of an object to change its state of motion. That explains why it is so hard for me to get out of my recliner!
Most of us never step off the path and make that first step in a new direction. It is clearly our loss and leads to many regrets.
I have always admired those that don't seem fettered by the same chains that seem to bind me whenever I think about doing something different.
Take my buddy Rick. He does not seem to be bound by the same rule of physics that gets me all bound up. His feet move toward new things effortlessly, while mine seem stuck fast in clay. Rick is an engineer who quit a good job to go back to school to become a teacher! He learned to make beautiful furniture. He wanted to restore an old pick up, so he learned how, and is doing it. Metal casting, camping, cooking, welding, and metal machining are just a few of the things he is into actively.
All that said, that is not what makes my buddy Rick stand out. What makes Rick stand out is the fact that he encourages others to take the journey with him. He prodded me into welding last year. I had always wanted to learn welding, but I would never have done it. I talked about attending a class for years, but never overcame the inertia and actually signed up.
I encourage each of you to step off the path, and try that thing that you have always talked about doing. It is most likely worth the effort, and even if it is not, it will help you get rid of the "if onlys" and the "I wishes". You know "if only" I had takent the time, I could have - - - or "I wish" I had made that trip to Spain when I was younger.
Stepping off the path is hard. If you can't make yourself do it, then I hope you have a buddy like Rick with a cattle prod to help you along the way. I will warn you now, a buddy like Rick is hard to find, so you might want to try a little harder on your own to take that first step. If you do find that you can do it on your own, then maybe you could be somebodies Rick and help them make that step.
Now where did I out that banjo?
So what happens to us that we don't go for it? We all have lots of excuses, the job, the family, money pressure, peer pressure, and the list goes on. For most of us it turns out that it is just a basic law of physics - - inertia! We all learned it in school, Sir Issac Newton defined it, the resistance of an object to change its state of motion. That explains why it is so hard for me to get out of my recliner!
Most of us never step off the path and make that first step in a new direction. It is clearly our loss and leads to many regrets.
I have always admired those that don't seem fettered by the same chains that seem to bind me whenever I think about doing something different.
Take my buddy Rick. He does not seem to be bound by the same rule of physics that gets me all bound up. His feet move toward new things effortlessly, while mine seem stuck fast in clay. Rick is an engineer who quit a good job to go back to school to become a teacher! He learned to make beautiful furniture. He wanted to restore an old pick up, so he learned how, and is doing it. Metal casting, camping, cooking, welding, and metal machining are just a few of the things he is into actively.
All that said, that is not what makes my buddy Rick stand out. What makes Rick stand out is the fact that he encourages others to take the journey with him. He prodded me into welding last year. I had always wanted to learn welding, but I would never have done it. I talked about attending a class for years, but never overcame the inertia and actually signed up.
I encourage each of you to step off the path, and try that thing that you have always talked about doing. It is most likely worth the effort, and even if it is not, it will help you get rid of the "if onlys" and the "I wishes". You know "if only" I had takent the time, I could have - - - or "I wish" I had made that trip to Spain when I was younger.
Stepping off the path is hard. If you can't make yourself do it, then I hope you have a buddy like Rick with a cattle prod to help you along the way. I will warn you now, a buddy like Rick is hard to find, so you might want to try a little harder on your own to take that first step. If you do find that you can do it on your own, then maybe you could be somebodies Rick and help them make that step.
Now where did I out that banjo?
Monday, February 9, 2009
I am very sad
I am very sad this morning, and I think I know why - - I have lost all confidence in our elected officials. What a mess! Would you ever say "it is not as important what we do, it is only important that we do it fast" WHAT! I sometimes tell the joke in the car, "that I don't know where we are going , but we are sure making good time". It generally gets a chuckle because it is a joke, if it were true nobody would be laughing. Our elected and appointed officials made the rounds Sunday on the talk shows and made just that argument. "We are in uncharted water", "we are not sure what to do, but we must do something fast", "we don't know how much money is needed, but we know it has to be bold". They don't know where we are going but they sure are in a hurry to make good time.
What would you think of a doctor who told you he was not sure why your thumb hurt, but he was going to be bold and cut off your arm in hopes that it fixed the problem? I think you would say wait a minute let's talk about this, I need to understand what is going on. If he then told you there was no time to discuss it, you had to be bold and act right now, you would. Only your action would be to get up, walk out of his office, and call the American Medical Association to report the quack!
The one thing that all the economist seem to agree on is the fact that the mess we are in was caused by our collective determination to live above our means. We bought houses that were to big for our needs, we bought cars that were impractical, and we did it all with easy money loans that clearly we could not afford to pay back. We were borrowing to support a lifestyle we could not afford. And what is the answer now? The government will borrow several trillion dollars, that we can not afford to pay back, to buy "things". Buying "things", or "investing" in them as the politicians like to say, will stimulate the economy. I suppose that is true. The politicians argue that if they gave us the money, we might save it and not spend it as needed. Interesting that saving has become evil. I suppose it is true that most Americans are concerned (see scared) and might want to hold on to some of their money, of course if we had been doing that for the last few years, we would not be here today. Non the less we need to spend, we need to buy cars and houses and shoes and TVs to get our economy rolling. I would be willing to do that if I had any confidence that our government was not driving us toward a real depression.
It is also true that a big part of this financial mess was caused by greedy charlatans on Wall Street, and they are being dealt with - - -by giving them several hundred billions in bailout compliments of the tax payer!
There are those that argue that government spending is more effective than spending in the private sector. That argument generally comes from those folks who are living off the taxes of the private sector and are not the least bit worried about losing their jobs. You and I would never pay $1000 for a toilet seat or spend millions of dollars to study the sex life of badgers.
We are looking for answers without pain, and I am not sure there are any. I don't know the answer. I know that the problem is very complex, and the solution is even more so. I also know that whenever someone tells you that they don't have time to explain the solution or discuss it, that is a bad sign. We all sign legal papers all the time that we don't understand. Not a good practice but we do it anyway. We are usually comforted by the fact that we are invited and encouraged to read the documents, and to ask questions about anything we do not understand. What if you sat down to sign those same documents and they were covered up? What if you wanted to read them and you were told there was not time? What if you protested and were told, "just trust me, I am looking out for you." Would you, or would you say wait a minute you have some explaining to do, I am not signing anything.
The economy will not collapse if they take time to explain the "stimulus package" to the American people. One trillion dollars explained in 800 pages of legislation. At a cost of a little over one billion dollars per page, that might be worth reading.
They cried wolf and we gave them 700 billion dollars without any idea of what it was being used for, or accountability of where it went. We have a new president and he said the 700 billion was handled irresponsibly, I will do better. He is now crying wolf for a trillion more dollars. Don't ask any questions, just hurry and give it to me where I can save you. (with your own money I might add)
"Change we can count on" - - if "count on" means the same old pigs at the trough getting what they want, looks like we got it. I have children and grandchildren who will never see this money paid off. I was hoping for more.
What would you think of a doctor who told you he was not sure why your thumb hurt, but he was going to be bold and cut off your arm in hopes that it fixed the problem? I think you would say wait a minute let's talk about this, I need to understand what is going on. If he then told you there was no time to discuss it, you had to be bold and act right now, you would. Only your action would be to get up, walk out of his office, and call the American Medical Association to report the quack!
The one thing that all the economist seem to agree on is the fact that the mess we are in was caused by our collective determination to live above our means. We bought houses that were to big for our needs, we bought cars that were impractical, and we did it all with easy money loans that clearly we could not afford to pay back. We were borrowing to support a lifestyle we could not afford. And what is the answer now? The government will borrow several trillion dollars, that we can not afford to pay back, to buy "things". Buying "things", or "investing" in them as the politicians like to say, will stimulate the economy. I suppose that is true. The politicians argue that if they gave us the money, we might save it and not spend it as needed. Interesting that saving has become evil. I suppose it is true that most Americans are concerned (see scared) and might want to hold on to some of their money, of course if we had been doing that for the last few years, we would not be here today. Non the less we need to spend, we need to buy cars and houses and shoes and TVs to get our economy rolling. I would be willing to do that if I had any confidence that our government was not driving us toward a real depression.
It is also true that a big part of this financial mess was caused by greedy charlatans on Wall Street, and they are being dealt with - - -by giving them several hundred billions in bailout compliments of the tax payer!
There are those that argue that government spending is more effective than spending in the private sector. That argument generally comes from those folks who are living off the taxes of the private sector and are not the least bit worried about losing their jobs. You and I would never pay $1000 for a toilet seat or spend millions of dollars to study the sex life of badgers.
We are looking for answers without pain, and I am not sure there are any. I don't know the answer. I know that the problem is very complex, and the solution is even more so. I also know that whenever someone tells you that they don't have time to explain the solution or discuss it, that is a bad sign. We all sign legal papers all the time that we don't understand. Not a good practice but we do it anyway. We are usually comforted by the fact that we are invited and encouraged to read the documents, and to ask questions about anything we do not understand. What if you sat down to sign those same documents and they were covered up? What if you wanted to read them and you were told there was not time? What if you protested and were told, "just trust me, I am looking out for you." Would you, or would you say wait a minute you have some explaining to do, I am not signing anything.
The economy will not collapse if they take time to explain the "stimulus package" to the American people. One trillion dollars explained in 800 pages of legislation. At a cost of a little over one billion dollars per page, that might be worth reading.
They cried wolf and we gave them 700 billion dollars without any idea of what it was being used for, or accountability of where it went. We have a new president and he said the 700 billion was handled irresponsibly, I will do better. He is now crying wolf for a trillion more dollars. Don't ask any questions, just hurry and give it to me where I can save you. (with your own money I might add)
"Change we can count on" - - if "count on" means the same old pigs at the trough getting what they want, looks like we got it. I have children and grandchildren who will never see this money paid off. I was hoping for more.
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