THE POOR SAVING US I was out and about yesterday and saw the people who are often referred to as street people and begin to think that somehow they have it better than I do. For that matter, they might be doing a whole lot better than most people I know who have better clothes, have cars to drive, have food in their kitchens, and have a place to sleep in at night. Just why do I say they have it better than we do? Most of us who have these better clothes, cars, food and a places to live in are being run ragged and just so stressed out maintaining the life to have these things. The banks are on our case to keep up with our credit card payments with which we have acquired these things in many cases. Every month the many utilities companies, the telephone companies, the cable and internet companies, and etc., all line up to take a chunk out of our pay cheques. Sometimes there isn’t enough so some of these go on our credit cards. All because we thing we need these to live our lives. It never occurs to us that maybe we don’t need these, or not so much of them. So on we go being stressed eventually dropping dead of a heart attack or seriously being sidelined by one of the many stress related illnesses like cancer, diabetes, and high blood pressure and on and on and on. Meanwhile the street people don’t have too much of this killer stress dogging them. Whatever their needs they are able to find ways to access them and go on about their business. They don’t worry about credit card bills, or any of the other myriad forms of bills that kill off the people with nice clothes and cars. Of course they have their own set of problems they contend with but all in all, their difficulties are not as complicated as we might like to think. Some of us, the nice clothes and cars people, yell at them to smarten up and get a job. But why should they? Just to end up like you? Running yourself ragged and stress killing yourself? Probably not, is what they may be thinking. Anyway, I think we could take some lessons from these “street people” by learning to let live. In fact, they may be showing us the way to deal with this “globalization” economics that is driving us mad and to early graves. Once upon a time our social set ups were much like the way the “street people” economy is. We looked after each other and made sure no one was forgotten as to be starving to death. The street people look after each other and make sure everyone knows where the place is to go to sleep on a bed or at least a safe place to go to for the night. They tell each other times and places where to catch a good meal. Now we are to busy and stressed to care about each other but rather we march to the beat of the drum played by the large corporations and banks who do not care about us but to take our money so that big bonuses and large returns to the investor are achieved. We are so focused on our “cost of living” driven by these huge concerns we are all but forgetting our humanity. Anyway, I thought I might bring that to your attention this afternoon.
Posted on: Sun, 06 Jul 2014 23:27:26 +0000