Thoughts on Poverty and Wealth

• "Poor" is not a dirty word.
• Not all "poor" people are poor because they deserve to be.
• Not all poor people are sad.
• Not all poor people are happy.
• Being poor does not always mean a lack of ambition or morals or character.
• A lot of times, being poor means being unwilling to do anything and everything for profit.
• "Rich" is not a dirty word.
• Not all rich people have a lack of morals, character or compassion for others.
• Not all rich people are happy.
• Not all rich people are sad.
• Not all poor people are lazy.
• Not all rich people are hard workers.
• Lazy is lazy.
• Hard work is hard work, no matter what the profit.
• People doing jobs that won't make them rich are needed as much as people doing jobs that will make them rich.
• For some people, "poor" means working hard and still not being able to afford healthcare or education or a decent existence.
• For some people, "rich" means being healthy, happy, loved and at peace with themselves.
• We need to stop glorifying the wrong definitions of rich and poor.
• We need to start valuing character more than we value status.
• We need to instill in our children better reasons for pursuing education.
• We need to start seeing each person for what they really are rather than for what we think they might be.
• We need to start portraying ourselves in the way we want to be seen.
• We need to stop making excuses for our poverty of character and morals.
• The rich man receiving government assistance for being rich needs to stop telling the poor man not to receive government assistance for being poor.
• We need to do away with labels for government assistance that demonize the poor while excusing or applauding the rich.
• Those who use their wealth to trample, loot and corrupt are as bad as the poor who use their poverty as an excuse to trample, loot and corrupt.
• Prince or pauper, we are all human.
• We need to stop banding together as the "haves" and the "have nots" and start banding together as the brothers and sisters who are all trying to live our lives the best we can.
• We need to start valuing the lives of all good people, rich or poor.

Peace

--Free

Success and Happiness, Morality and Choices

I was just now reading an article about some wealthy folks showing their asses at a private event. When I say "wealthy" I'm talking billionaire-wealthy. Apparently these are folks who have chosen money as their Master.

At first, I was angry, then I realized that my anger won't change the way people choose to live their lives. As a matter of fact, my anger and disappointment means nothing to these people. So I gave up on the wasted emotions and started to wonder about what drives certain people. What drives some people to be selfless and others to be unashamedly greedy? What makes some of us lose little pieces of our humanity?

Think about people who started out with good intentions before they got caught up in pursuing money or fame. I can think of a lot of so-called pastors and Christians who didn't just backslide but bobsledded down into greed. I can look back ten or twelve years to some celebrities who started out in the church and have ended up making themselves into gods. And I'm talking here about people who literally have tried to re-name themselves after God or Jesus. Calling that mess the Illuminati is like portraying the Devil as a little fork-tongued man in red tights. You name something and people forget about everything but the label.

If anyone needs proof that good and evil exist, all they need to do is look at the world around them. I have a belief that we become taken over, in essence, by whatever we exalt higher than all else. Fame or looks or money. As far as money, there's really no stopping anyone from becoming rich other than the limits they set for themselves. I think that, if a person could put everything else in life second to the goal of becoming rich (or beautiful or famous), then they will be rich (or beautiful or famous).

A lot of us are gated in by our personal convictions. Financially, my own life is in shambles right now, but I've had chances to change that fact. There are just a lot of things I refuse to do to have more money or "security". I don't care what your religious beliefs (or non-beliefs) are, most of us have a gatekeeper in our hearts. This sentry is what keeps us from acting on certain impulses and desires. I have a strict 'gatekeeper' while I know people with more lenient ones.

On the other hand, I see people of my class (I really do hate that word) who will do some things for happiness that they wouldn't do for money. For instance, I know women who'd never trick for money, but they will let one man turn them out - all in the name of 'love'.

When I think of the few wealthy folks mentioned in the article I read, I equate them to poorer people I know. These folks I personally know of might not kill you for a dollar but they'd kill you over a pair of shoes, a piece of jewelry, or a lover.

Some people have managed to reach financial security without selling their souls, but there are some people (in my opinion) who will always think that 'more' is never enough. They are like the anorexics who will diet themselves to death.

What drives us - rich and poor - to even consider some desires? Is it some sort of fear? Or is a desperate emptiness we are trying to fill? Soul hunger? Needing to feel- what?

Because I am of Christian beliefs, I think of what Christ said about one not being able to serve two Masters. In some ways, most of us are guilty of at least struggling with trying not to serve another Master. (I struggle with being prideful and holding grudges.) Are we any better than a billionaire who jokes about the poor when we joke among ourselves about someone not as attractive or smart or popular?

Still, I pity rich people just as they might pity me. Maybe they pity me for my faith. I'm sure they believe that I, in some way, deserve my poverty. I pity that they have chosen money over compassion and charity. I pity that everything they have lived for will die with them. They will die beautiful, maybe, and rich, maybe, but they will be a dead empty body just like I will one day be. What's the difference? Well, we will find out.

Peace
--Free

P.S.: Hope this post is fairly coherent. It's been a loooong day for me.

Super-Sized Stupid

I looked at this picture in this article and had to ask myself: "If I could, would I?"

A 1 million dollar shoe collection? Seriously? 

No, I don't think that I would. Even if I trade the word "shoes" for "purse" or "perfumes." No.

I swear, I think what's wrong with us all today is that we have no limits. We are a "super-size" mentality. Food, sex, cars, homes, shoes, clothes... Anything we can have, we want the biggest, most expensive, fastest, fattest, richest - just any-est.

I know that somebody reading this is saying, "So?" But it is a "So?" issue. It matters.

This is why people are starving themselves to be the thinnest. You know that centuries back, people were being gluttons to be the fattest. How silly are we? Women are risking surgery and other medical procedures to have the biggest boobs and/or butts and/or lips. And, wait though - sometimes people let freaks off the street or operating out of their kitchen sink perform these procedures! Like they're getting a relaxer put on their hair by Mr. Leo or something... Too bad there's not a procedure to force us to better use our brains.

I have seen the most ridiculous "news" stories over the past year about people being so damn silly with money. There was the one dad who bought his daughter an apartment that cost something like 60 million dollars. There were the two rich guys competing to have the most expensive yacht. It's as if these fools - rich, super-rich or freak-me-mama wealthy are trying to see who can spend the most money the fastest. One rapper was in a club, just fanning hundred-dollar bills across some stripper's ass. (In two years, I might get to read about his bankruptcy or non-payment of spousal or child support, right?)


Let's not just pick on the rich. Poor people are almost as bad, sometimes worse. People who don't have next month's rent are in the stores, just knocking each other over to buy tennis shoes for two- and three-hundred dollars. Or they are driving cars with more value in the rims than the car itself. Or - this was my favorite when I was in one small town a couple years ago: they are like the guy that had a Bentley (I am dead serious) parked outside his house - a house that looked like those tar-paper shacks you see in photo-essays about American poverty. A Bentley. A Pepto-Bismol pink Bentley. I didn't even know what kind of car it was until I asked somebody. Broke-ass, dumb-ass, embarrassingly stupid person.


Look even at the way we see food. It's already been talked about how we "super-size" everything (except our salads) when we go out to eat. What kills me is the way we have started using food as a status symbol. It used to be enough to be seen in an "exclusive" restaurant, but now we go another step. Now, we want be-jeweled food. I guess rich some folks can't just have a hamburger unless it's garnished with gold dust or dust of diamonds or some such! Or - and I guess this is if you're too classy for blinging out your food - there are the recipes using some outrageously priced meat or mushroom. Maybe one that only grows in the Himalayas every six years and on a full moon. Or meat from a cow that was fed caviar and grapes. People don't care as long as they think they are being "exclusive."

Personally, I want to be inclusive, especially when it comes to my food. I want to know that lots of people have eaten (and lived through) what I'm ordering. I don't want to be the idiot that gobbles down something exotic and new. Find out a few years later that the knot growing on the side of my ass is from some weird and unpronounceable shit I paid a lot of money to eat.

I don't know, though. I guess we started to doing these crazy things to feel more important than someone else. Now we can't stop.

Of course, this is the "broke-ass" me talking. Give me a few million dollars to play with and we'll see...

Peace
--Free