You have to be firmly grounded in yourself, you have to stand bravely on your own two feet to be able to love at all.
Friedrich Nietzsche
***********************
Yesterday I had an amusing thought. Well, not so amusing, but ironic. The only way we will have peace in the world is if we eliminate all the people. Seriously, if it weren't for the gross, rotten behavior of the miscreants in the world we might actually survive. But then we are all guilty of bad behavior to one degree or another. So why don't we just vacate the place and leave it to the birds and bugs?
I have heard so-called pious, devout Christians say they were very religious and hence believed in "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth." Moses put that law into effect in order to prevent exactly what goes on these days, the escalating violence of revenge. "If you hurt my goat, I'll kill your cow to 'teach you a lesson,' then if you set fire to my barn to retaliate I'll destroy your house and every one in it" and so on until someone drops the big one and we all perish. Fortunately Jesus set aside that old law and replaced it with one about loving your enemies. It takes courage to do that instead of "getting even," "settling the score," "closure."
The Bible says "God is love." That's an equation with two unknowns, x = y, with neither x nor y concretely defined. Some of those same eye-for-an-eye Christians will say that God sends a hurricane to punish us for our sins and He visits a disease on us to test our faith. Who wants to worship a god like that, a god of disaster and disease? That so-called god is no better than the barn burner.
If God is love then practicing love is the best form of worship, and that means not only loving and forgiving your enemies but loving even the skunks and vipers of the human race. And when disaster strikes to go and help and save and not wait for God to send rain on the fire. "Our remedies oft in ourselves do lie which we ascribe to heaven" Shakespeare wrote.
I can't define love. I stand humbly in the shadow of great philosophers, poets and song writers who have been trying to do that for centuries. But it seems to me that one who truly loves is like a sturdy oak in a tempest, an oasis in a desert, a hug in someone's sorrow and a cheer in their joy.
DB - The Vagabond
**********************
AUTUMN QUESTION
(This is not a contest.)
At what event of the past do you wish you could be present? Why?
Only 9 responses so far.
dbdacoba@aol.com
Thank you.
DB
************************
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
It's In The Details
Nothing in life demands closer attention than the things which seem natural.
Honore de Balzac
**********************
I am currently reading, among other things, "The Black Sheep" by Balzac. If Balzac isn't the greatest French novelist, he is certainly high on the nomination list. One of his great gifts is in character descriptions. Before any action you know so much about the characters that you feel as if you know them personally.
It's an enviable ability. As a writer I tend to be more concerned with thoughts and actions than in my descriptions of characters. I suppose that is because I spent so many years as an actor where most of what I read were plays. Playwrights spend very little time on character descriptions. There is dialogue and speeches. From those the actor learns about the character and depicts him on the stage rather than in writing.
In both cases however great attention must be paid to details. An actor makes so many decisions from his imagination and intuition about the role he plays that would seem unimportant and useless to playing the role, and they are things the audience may never see, but they add dimensions to the life of the character that makes him more believable and therefore fuller and richer for his participation in the story. And as Balzac says these are often natural things that one would take for granted and not think about, such as which shoe does he put on first when dressing, what does he have for breakfast, what's his favorite music, does he bite his fingernails, what does he do that he's embarrassed about, does he like cats or not.
Each of the things the actor finds about the role he plays are tucked back into a sack of characteristics that he carries with him into the role. Some are more important than others, but all are useful.
In my current novel "The Savior" I have avoided character descriptions so far, as I concentrate on the plot, I am planning to go back and fill in the descriptions of the main characters. Balzac shows me that I better do it soon.
Then there's the matter of our personal characters. Could you write an honest, objective, third person description of yourself that would convince anyone of who you are? What would you leave out? What would you forget? And what is there to you that you don't even know about? Maybe there are habits you have, simple quirks of behavior that you consider perfectly natural (Doesn't everyone eat there peas with a knife?) but which other people might find strange and unnatural. How closely do you pay attention to your behavior and your life? The more natural it seems the more it needs to be observed.
DB
Vagabond
***********
AUTUMN QUESTION
(This is not a contest.)
At what event of the past do you wish you could be present? Why?
Only 8 responses so far.
dbdacoba@aol.com
Thank you.
DB
************************
Honore de Balzac
**********************
I am currently reading, among other things, "The Black Sheep" by Balzac. If Balzac isn't the greatest French novelist, he is certainly high on the nomination list. One of his great gifts is in character descriptions. Before any action you know so much about the characters that you feel as if you know them personally.
It's an enviable ability. As a writer I tend to be more concerned with thoughts and actions than in my descriptions of characters. I suppose that is because I spent so many years as an actor where most of what I read were plays. Playwrights spend very little time on character descriptions. There is dialogue and speeches. From those the actor learns about the character and depicts him on the stage rather than in writing.
In both cases however great attention must be paid to details. An actor makes so many decisions from his imagination and intuition about the role he plays that would seem unimportant and useless to playing the role, and they are things the audience may never see, but they add dimensions to the life of the character that makes him more believable and therefore fuller and richer for his participation in the story. And as Balzac says these are often natural things that one would take for granted and not think about, such as which shoe does he put on first when dressing, what does he have for breakfast, what's his favorite music, does he bite his fingernails, what does he do that he's embarrassed about, does he like cats or not.
Each of the things the actor finds about the role he plays are tucked back into a sack of characteristics that he carries with him into the role. Some are more important than others, but all are useful.
In my current novel "The Savior" I have avoided character descriptions so far, as I concentrate on the plot, I am planning to go back and fill in the descriptions of the main characters. Balzac shows me that I better do it soon.
Then there's the matter of our personal characters. Could you write an honest, objective, third person description of yourself that would convince anyone of who you are? What would you leave out? What would you forget? And what is there to you that you don't even know about? Maybe there are habits you have, simple quirks of behavior that you consider perfectly natural (Doesn't everyone eat there peas with a knife?) but which other people might find strange and unnatural. How closely do you pay attention to your behavior and your life? The more natural it seems the more it needs to be observed.
DB
Vagabond
***********
AUTUMN QUESTION
(This is not a contest.)
At what event of the past do you wish you could be present? Why?
Only 8 responses so far.
dbdacoba@aol.com
Thank you.
DB
************************
Monday, December 6, 2010
That Old Devil Moon
The fortunes of us that are moon's men doth ebb and flow like the sea.
Shakespeare
*****************
One of the most important scientific events of the 20th Century was the discovery of the subconscious mind. Though what it is and how it works are still being argued it is undeniable that the research and understanding of something influencing us that is hidden from immediate conscious view has been a great help for doctors attempting to cure mental and emotional problems, and the resourcefulness of doctors and others to utilize what is known to carefully affect cures.
I did a season of summer stock in a theatre on the shore of the Atlantic Ocean. Summer stock is difficult work. It's very busy and takes a lot of activity all day, every day. To prepare and perform a play a week demands intense concentration and discipline. In contrast to that there was a young man who came to the beach every morning, when it wasn't raining, with a quart of beer. He would sit down, stick the bottle in the sand and stare out at the ocean. Every now and then he would take a sip of beer, but otherwise he just sat and stared. At midday he would get up and go somewhere, presumably to have lunch, and then return with a fresh bottle of beer and sit staring at the ocean until the evening.
He never spoke to anyone and was never seen in any company. I was told he was a composer. Well, maybe he wrote music at night but his day was spent in a beer fueled contemplation of the ocean. I called him a "solatic," a solitary individual who was the opposite of a lunatic.
A lunatic is someone who is wildly manic, but whose insanity is supposedly affected by the phases of the moon. The term dates back to the 14th Century. I once knew a mystic philosopher who opined that since there was liquid in the body and the moon influenced the tides there was no reason why it couldn't do the same to us. Though it may not drive us crazy, he thought, it should have some result.
The human mind to me is like a combination of a well kept garden, a beautiful forest and a jungle. I enjoy reading books and articles on psychology: Freud, Jung, Adler, Laing and others. The study of psychology itself is a trek through the jungles. The unusual flowers and plant life, the strange and dangerous beasts, the unexpected and hidden beauties of nature are all to be found under the surface of our conscious mentality.
We all experience the phenomena of thoughts popping into our heads from nowhere. Strange and unfamiliar images and ideas occur to us and we don't know where they come from. We have also learned that similar things happen unconsciously. While we can discard the conscious thoughts as being not what we really think or want to think and thus avoid any effect on our activities and behavior, or at least we can choose to do so. But what if we are influenced by appearances out of the jungle that we are unaware of and hence unprepared for? That's where reason and a clear sense of morality come to our aid. We need to know who we are, what we believe and how we allow ourselves to behave.
Friedrich Nietzsche wrote "Socrates established a permanent state of daylight against all dark desire - the daylight of reason." It's one of the reasons I enjoy reading philosophers. Great philosophers, like great playwrights, and great novelists are psychologists.
I was playing a scene with a young actor in which his character had a fit. I stood watching it. We were in rehearsal and in the note session the director wanted to know what I was doing during the fit and I said I was trying to figure out what his tactic was. The actor said there was no tactic and that "Sometimes a cigar is only a cigar." I said a cigar is always just a cigar but on the stage it means something and that there must be a tactic even if the character himself doesn't know what it is. The actor was impressed. He had just learned something about himself, acting and the workings of the human mind.
Reason is the human mechanism for keeping our sanity. A lunatic is one who loses it at certain moments. There was nothing apparently manic about the solatic on the beach, but, quite the opposite, a picture of a man who was unable to do anything but stare at the ocean as the tides rolled in and out.
Fortunately we have reason to protect us from the jungle creatures, to safely accompany us as we walk through the forest of imagination and to keep our fortunes from ebbing and flowing like the sea.
DB - The Vagabond
*********************
AUTUMN QUESTION
(This is not a contest.)
At what event of the past do you wish you could be present? Why?
Only 8 responses so far. Let's go, let's go.
dbdacoba@aol.com
Thank you.
DB
************************
Shakespeare
*****************
One of the most important scientific events of the 20th Century was the discovery of the subconscious mind. Though what it is and how it works are still being argued it is undeniable that the research and understanding of something influencing us that is hidden from immediate conscious view has been a great help for doctors attempting to cure mental and emotional problems, and the resourcefulness of doctors and others to utilize what is known to carefully affect cures.
I did a season of summer stock in a theatre on the shore of the Atlantic Ocean. Summer stock is difficult work. It's very busy and takes a lot of activity all day, every day. To prepare and perform a play a week demands intense concentration and discipline. In contrast to that there was a young man who came to the beach every morning, when it wasn't raining, with a quart of beer. He would sit down, stick the bottle in the sand and stare out at the ocean. Every now and then he would take a sip of beer, but otherwise he just sat and stared. At midday he would get up and go somewhere, presumably to have lunch, and then return with a fresh bottle of beer and sit staring at the ocean until the evening.
He never spoke to anyone and was never seen in any company. I was told he was a composer. Well, maybe he wrote music at night but his day was spent in a beer fueled contemplation of the ocean. I called him a "solatic," a solitary individual who was the opposite of a lunatic.
A lunatic is someone who is wildly manic, but whose insanity is supposedly affected by the phases of the moon. The term dates back to the 14th Century. I once knew a mystic philosopher who opined that since there was liquid in the body and the moon influenced the tides there was no reason why it couldn't do the same to us. Though it may not drive us crazy, he thought, it should have some result.
The human mind to me is like a combination of a well kept garden, a beautiful forest and a jungle. I enjoy reading books and articles on psychology: Freud, Jung, Adler, Laing and others. The study of psychology itself is a trek through the jungles. The unusual flowers and plant life, the strange and dangerous beasts, the unexpected and hidden beauties of nature are all to be found under the surface of our conscious mentality.
We all experience the phenomena of thoughts popping into our heads from nowhere. Strange and unfamiliar images and ideas occur to us and we don't know where they come from. We have also learned that similar things happen unconsciously. While we can discard the conscious thoughts as being not what we really think or want to think and thus avoid any effect on our activities and behavior, or at least we can choose to do so. But what if we are influenced by appearances out of the jungle that we are unaware of and hence unprepared for? That's where reason and a clear sense of morality come to our aid. We need to know who we are, what we believe and how we allow ourselves to behave.
Friedrich Nietzsche wrote "Socrates established a permanent state of daylight against all dark desire - the daylight of reason." It's one of the reasons I enjoy reading philosophers. Great philosophers, like great playwrights, and great novelists are psychologists.
I was playing a scene with a young actor in which his character had a fit. I stood watching it. We were in rehearsal and in the note session the director wanted to know what I was doing during the fit and I said I was trying to figure out what his tactic was. The actor said there was no tactic and that "Sometimes a cigar is only a cigar." I said a cigar is always just a cigar but on the stage it means something and that there must be a tactic even if the character himself doesn't know what it is. The actor was impressed. He had just learned something about himself, acting and the workings of the human mind.
Reason is the human mechanism for keeping our sanity. A lunatic is one who loses it at certain moments. There was nothing apparently manic about the solatic on the beach, but, quite the opposite, a picture of a man who was unable to do anything but stare at the ocean as the tides rolled in and out.
Fortunately we have reason to protect us from the jungle creatures, to safely accompany us as we walk through the forest of imagination and to keep our fortunes from ebbing and flowing like the sea.
DB - The Vagabond
*********************
AUTUMN QUESTION
(This is not a contest.)
At what event of the past do you wish you could be present? Why?
Only 8 responses so far. Let's go, let's go.
dbdacoba@aol.com
Thank you.
DB
************************
Sunday, December 5, 2010
weekend Puzzle Answers
Weekend Puzzle Answers
You were to identify these singers from the clues.
There was only one contestant, Beth, of the Blogspot Tigers. So by default she wins the genuine cotton metronome.
1. In black face. Al Jolson
2. With pips. Gladys Knight
3. Three with jazz. Lambert, Hendricks and Ross
4. Still with no band. The Persuasions
5. With blue eyes. Frank Sinatra
6. With a megaphone. Rudy Vallee
----------------------------------------
Class, next week I hope you do better.
DB
**************
You were to identify these singers from the clues.
There was only one contestant, Beth, of the Blogspot Tigers. So by default she wins the genuine cotton metronome.
1. In black face. Al Jolson
2. With pips. Gladys Knight
3. Three with jazz. Lambert, Hendricks and Ross
4. Still with no band. The Persuasions
5. With blue eyes. Frank Sinatra
6. With a megaphone. Rudy Vallee
----------------------------------------
Class, next week I hope you do better.
DB
**************
Paying The Price
The large expenditures are the small ones that take place most frequently.
Nietzsche
*****************
How much would you do to save your life? The fact is our lives are ransomed in bits and pieces. There are people and times when one great heroic act has changed someone's life, but it is not those events that pay for living. The balance of the account is a slow and particular process. I's made up of moments, small, mostly unrecognized moments, relatively unimportant moments with seemingly no price tag on them.
"Sir! You dropped your gloves!" The subway train came to a stop and the door opened. When the man got up to leave the train he accidentally dropped his gloves on the floor and didn't notice it. They were a very nice looking pair of brand new gloves. I think there were a couple of guys ready to pounce on them as soon as the man left the train. But I shouted and pointed at the gloves. He thanked me, picked them up and made it off the train before the door closed. There was a flash of good will between two men who will never see each other again. I felt good, but what I didn't realize was that I had just made a small deposit in my life's account.
One of my favorite cartoons, which I remember from many years ago, was of a wide open space and in it, spread around, were scores of Roman soldiers, gladiators, men in togas, women in gowns, slave girls, and prisoners in chains. It was obviously ancient Rome, or looked like it. Only everyone was bent over staring at the ground.
It was very strange and unexplainable until you read a voice coming from the side which said "People, can we shoot the scene first and look for the contact lens later?"
At the local supermarket one day, the cashier accidentally popped a contact lens out of her eye. She ws very concerned because she couldn't find it. A couple of us bent over and looked for it. I was reminded of the cartoon. But I saw it. It had landed not on the floor, but on small ledge at the end of the checkout counter. I pointed at it and said "Is that it?" It was and she was very grateful.
About 7 years later I was in the same market with a shopping list. I could read all the items on the list, even with my glyphic handwriting, except for the first one. It began with a "b" but beyond that it was a mystery.
I stepped over to a woman who was stocking shelves and asked her if she could read what it said. She stopped what she was doing, put on her glasses and tried. "Baking soda?" "No." "Baby food?" "No" I said with a chuckle. "Bananas?" "No." I had bananas in the cart, they were further down on the list. "Brussels sprouts?" "No." She apologized that she couldn't tell.
I decided to forget it and took the list with me back to the check out. The cashier was the same woman whose contact lens I had once found. I'm sure she didn't remember me or the event. But as I was putting my purchases on the counter she saw me looking at my list and asked "Did you get everything?" I said I did but that I couldn't read the first item on my list.
"Let me see." She took the list and in two seconds handed it back and said "batteries." Of course, that was it.
Then she said. "They're right around here on the other side. I'll wait." I slid around picked up the batteries and she added them to the cost. I thanked her again and she gave me the traditional "Have a nice day."
Both of those women, even the one who couldn't but tried, had just paid a shekel or two into their life's balance.
This expenditure of heart doesn't stop with good deeds. What we think of people, when we think of them, mattes. Are our thoughts of them good ones or not. Every positive image we have of someone else has its quantum effect no matter how subtle and unrecognizable. To hold in mind a beneficial picture of someone else is dropping coins into their bank account and ours.
And finally, to damn up the flow of negativity, to deny bad and affirm good, to deny failure and affirm success, to deny wrong and affirm right, to deny sorrow and affirm joy, to deny error and affirm truth, to deny pain and affirm pleasure, to deny weakness and affirm strength, to deny cruelty and affirm compassion, to deny evil its very obligation and permission to exist and to persist in doing that is the price for a genuinely redeemed life.
DB - The Vagabond
**********************
Weekend Puzzle
Okay weekend puzzlers. I'm back.
Identify the following.
1. In black face.
2. With pips.
3. Three with jazz.
4. Still with no band.
5. With blue eyes.
6. With a megaphone.
Good luck.
DB
**************
Nietzsche
*****************
How much would you do to save your life? The fact is our lives are ransomed in bits and pieces. There are people and times when one great heroic act has changed someone's life, but it is not those events that pay for living. The balance of the account is a slow and particular process. I's made up of moments, small, mostly unrecognized moments, relatively unimportant moments with seemingly no price tag on them.
"Sir! You dropped your gloves!" The subway train came to a stop and the door opened. When the man got up to leave the train he accidentally dropped his gloves on the floor and didn't notice it. They were a very nice looking pair of brand new gloves. I think there were a couple of guys ready to pounce on them as soon as the man left the train. But I shouted and pointed at the gloves. He thanked me, picked them up and made it off the train before the door closed. There was a flash of good will between two men who will never see each other again. I felt good, but what I didn't realize was that I had just made a small deposit in my life's account.
One of my favorite cartoons, which I remember from many years ago, was of a wide open space and in it, spread around, were scores of Roman soldiers, gladiators, men in togas, women in gowns, slave girls, and prisoners in chains. It was obviously ancient Rome, or looked like it. Only everyone was bent over staring at the ground.
It was very strange and unexplainable until you read a voice coming from the side which said "People, can we shoot the scene first and look for the contact lens later?"
At the local supermarket one day, the cashier accidentally popped a contact lens out of her eye. She ws very concerned because she couldn't find it. A couple of us bent over and looked for it. I was reminded of the cartoon. But I saw it. It had landed not on the floor, but on small ledge at the end of the checkout counter. I pointed at it and said "Is that it?" It was and she was very grateful.
About 7 years later I was in the same market with a shopping list. I could read all the items on the list, even with my glyphic handwriting, except for the first one. It began with a "b" but beyond that it was a mystery.
I stepped over to a woman who was stocking shelves and asked her if she could read what it said. She stopped what she was doing, put on her glasses and tried. "Baking soda?" "No." "Baby food?" "No" I said with a chuckle. "Bananas?" "No." I had bananas in the cart, they were further down on the list. "Brussels sprouts?" "No." She apologized that she couldn't tell.
I decided to forget it and took the list with me back to the check out. The cashier was the same woman whose contact lens I had once found. I'm sure she didn't remember me or the event. But as I was putting my purchases on the counter she saw me looking at my list and asked "Did you get everything?" I said I did but that I couldn't read the first item on my list.
"Let me see." She took the list and in two seconds handed it back and said "batteries." Of course, that was it.
Then she said. "They're right around here on the other side. I'll wait." I slid around picked up the batteries and she added them to the cost. I thanked her again and she gave me the traditional "Have a nice day."
Both of those women, even the one who couldn't but tried, had just paid a shekel or two into their life's balance.
This expenditure of heart doesn't stop with good deeds. What we think of people, when we think of them, mattes. Are our thoughts of them good ones or not. Every positive image we have of someone else has its quantum effect no matter how subtle and unrecognizable. To hold in mind a beneficial picture of someone else is dropping coins into their bank account and ours.
And finally, to damn up the flow of negativity, to deny bad and affirm good, to deny failure and affirm success, to deny wrong and affirm right, to deny sorrow and affirm joy, to deny error and affirm truth, to deny pain and affirm pleasure, to deny weakness and affirm strength, to deny cruelty and affirm compassion, to deny evil its very obligation and permission to exist and to persist in doing that is the price for a genuinely redeemed life.
DB - The Vagabond
**********************
Weekend Puzzle
Okay weekend puzzlers. I'm back.
Identify the following.
1. In black face.
2. With pips.
3. Three with jazz.
4. Still with no band.
5. With blue eyes.
6. With a megaphone.
Good luck.
DB
**************
Saturday, December 4, 2010
In My World
You don't have to save the world, but you can be in the world - that's where the beauty comes from.
Daphne Zuniga
*********************
I went for a walk today. It was cold. Very cold. No snow, no wind, just cold. Classic winter type cold, dead leaves on the sidewalk, bare branches, even the sunlight seemed cold.
It was a day of promise. Winter is coming, snow is coming, Ashura is coming, Christmas is coming, Hanukah is coming, end of the year festivities are coming, a new year is coming.
I live in the Northeast. I have always lived in the Northeast, much of the time in New England, most of it in New York City, now I live in Pennsylvania. In the Northeast the winters can be brutal but beautiful. The snow piles up into barricades. The snow is a gentle miracle. Ice makes traveling treacherous. Ice covers the branches with jewels. The wind is fierce and biting. The wind makes music through the trees.
Winter in the Northeast is hard. Winter in the Northeast is beautiful.
I am grateful to be in my world.
DB - The Vagabond
*********************
Weekend Puzzle
Okay weekend puzzlers. I'm back.
Identify the following.
1. In black face.
2. With pips.
3. Three with jazz.
4. Still with no band.
5. With blue eyes.
6. With a megaphone.
Good luck.
DB
**************
Daphne Zuniga
*********************
I went for a walk today. It was cold. Very cold. No snow, no wind, just cold. Classic winter type cold, dead leaves on the sidewalk, bare branches, even the sunlight seemed cold.
It was a day of promise. Winter is coming, snow is coming, Ashura is coming, Christmas is coming, Hanukah is coming, end of the year festivities are coming, a new year is coming.
I live in the Northeast. I have always lived in the Northeast, much of the time in New England, most of it in New York City, now I live in Pennsylvania. In the Northeast the winters can be brutal but beautiful. The snow piles up into barricades. The snow is a gentle miracle. Ice makes traveling treacherous. Ice covers the branches with jewels. The wind is fierce and biting. The wind makes music through the trees.
Winter in the Northeast is hard. Winter in the Northeast is beautiful.
I am grateful to be in my world.
DB - The Vagabond
*********************
Weekend Puzzle
Okay weekend puzzlers. I'm back.
Identify the following.
1. In black face.
2. With pips.
3. Three with jazz.
4. Still with no band.
5. With blue eyes.
6. With a megaphone.
Good luck.
DB
**************
Friday, December 3, 2010
What's In Your Wallet
Without discipline you wouldn't know what to do with luck.
Carl Zuckmayer
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
I hope you are very wealthy. I wish I were. But if you aren't and you suddenly became rich what would you do with the money? You hear stories of someone winning 100 million dollars in the lottery and five years later they're broke. How can that be? They squandered it, that's how.
So you look at your 100 million, or whatever part of it they let you have, and say that now you can quit your job, pay off all your debts, get some health issues taken care of and buy a new car. Then you look again and realize you have barely made a dent in your new found wealth. So what else can you do with it.
You buy a new home, perhaps a big one, a mansion, and then hire a staff to take care of it.
You say "What the hell, you only live once, let's live it up" and take your wife on a trip around the world, or maybe you go it alone.
You had such a good time doing that you buy a yacht and a crew to take care of it, so you can go to sea again anytime you want.
You wouldn't think of going into a gallery or art auction and buying a Picasso or a Matisse for a few million and have something of lasting and increasing value. No, you start collecting rare and expensive automobiles once owned by movie stars.
Now you're living an easy and comfortable life you decide to run for Governor. That ends up costing you the rest of your fortune and you lose the election,.
Now you're broke. You have to put your mansion up for sale at a loss. The same with your yacht and your used car collection. You might actually sell the yacht, but the house will languish on the market and it's costing you a lot of money to keep the cars. You finally make a donation of those to help you with your taxes.
You go looking for a job.
Does that story sound like a fantasy? It is. But it's a very real possibility for someone who doesn't have the common sense to realize he hasn't just gone straight to heaven.
If I remember correctly the first New York City resident to win the New Your State Lottery, which was one million at the beginning, was an inner city Puerto Rican gentleman who when asked what he was going to do with the money said he would retire from his job and grow a vegetable garden in his back yard. I admired that.
If you suddenly get rich, if you aren't already, and I hope you do, it is not the time to throw your sanity out the window along with everything you've worked for. Wealth is a gift, a blessing. Many people who were born into wealth don't realize that. And many people who achieve wealth in their lives don't realize how lucky they are and tend to look down on the poor as being lazy or ignorant. But those who know the discipline of a difficult life, and don't forget it if they get rich, are the truly wealthy.
DB - The Vagabond
*********************
AUTUMN QUESTION
(This is not a contest.)
At what event of the past do you wish you could be present? Why?
Only 8 responses so far. Let's go folks.
dbdacoba@aol.com
Thank you.
DB
************************
Carl Zuckmayer
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
I hope you are very wealthy. I wish I were. But if you aren't and you suddenly became rich what would you do with the money? You hear stories of someone winning 100 million dollars in the lottery and five years later they're broke. How can that be? They squandered it, that's how.
So you look at your 100 million, or whatever part of it they let you have, and say that now you can quit your job, pay off all your debts, get some health issues taken care of and buy a new car. Then you look again and realize you have barely made a dent in your new found wealth. So what else can you do with it.
You buy a new home, perhaps a big one, a mansion, and then hire a staff to take care of it.
You say "What the hell, you only live once, let's live it up" and take your wife on a trip around the world, or maybe you go it alone.
You had such a good time doing that you buy a yacht and a crew to take care of it, so you can go to sea again anytime you want.
You wouldn't think of going into a gallery or art auction and buying a Picasso or a Matisse for a few million and have something of lasting and increasing value. No, you start collecting rare and expensive automobiles once owned by movie stars.
Now you're living an easy and comfortable life you decide to run for Governor. That ends up costing you the rest of your fortune and you lose the election,.
Now you're broke. You have to put your mansion up for sale at a loss. The same with your yacht and your used car collection. You might actually sell the yacht, but the house will languish on the market and it's costing you a lot of money to keep the cars. You finally make a donation of those to help you with your taxes.
You go looking for a job.
Does that story sound like a fantasy? It is. But it's a very real possibility for someone who doesn't have the common sense to realize he hasn't just gone straight to heaven.
If I remember correctly the first New York City resident to win the New Your State Lottery, which was one million at the beginning, was an inner city Puerto Rican gentleman who when asked what he was going to do with the money said he would retire from his job and grow a vegetable garden in his back yard. I admired that.
If you suddenly get rich, if you aren't already, and I hope you do, it is not the time to throw your sanity out the window along with everything you've worked for. Wealth is a gift, a blessing. Many people who were born into wealth don't realize that. And many people who achieve wealth in their lives don't realize how lucky they are and tend to look down on the poor as being lazy or ignorant. But those who know the discipline of a difficult life, and don't forget it if they get rich, are the truly wealthy.
DB - The Vagabond
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AUTUMN QUESTION
(This is not a contest.)
At what event of the past do you wish you could be present? Why?
Only 8 responses so far. Let's go folks.
dbdacoba@aol.com
Thank you.
DB
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