Why is it so difficult to keep shit in perspective? We are so easily confounded and overwhelmed by nearly everything that comes our way. Before we know it we are overcome by the tide of things outside of our control and shepherded - no, thrust - into a place that seeks to suck the life right out of us. And try as we might, this seems to happen more often than not. Even here in the great outdoors it touches us. We certainly believed that we were escaping that great tide when we chose to move. I mean, what could be more simple? Country life, blue collar jobs, no neighbors, and animal friends a'plenty. What in the world is there to freak out about? I continue to ask myself this every single day, even though I am freaking out continuously. Because there is money, there is status, there is success, there is accomplishment to freak out about. Yes, even here, in good ol' God's country, we are hostage to this age-old story, and in all of the above, we have little to brag about. Even here, the first thing asked is, "So what do you do for a living?" We ask this first because we have been trained to ask this. We ask this because we don't have any idea what else to ask. We don't know how to ask questions that matter to our souls, like, "What do you love to do?" or "Who are you?" or "What is your passion?" No, we ask the most meaningless and mundane of possible questions: What do you do to make money, which truthfully translates into the saddest but most dogged of human concerns. If I know what you do, I know roughly what you make. And if I know roughly what you make, I can put you in a category that I can judge up against myself. I can know if you are above or below me according to our societies' social scale. I can know if I should praise you or pity you. I know if I am better or worse than you. All because of the amount of money you earn.
Well, here's my heretical take on this bullshit, for what it's worth. Never in my life have I met someone whose money contributed to their wisdom, beauty or compassion. In fact, in my experience, the wonderful individuals who have wisdom and beauty and compassion typically go without monetary opulence. Not that this is necessary, I'm sure, but somehow it seems to contribute to things. And maybe it isn't the money that changes people at all; maybe it's the power that money brings. Either way, most of those who have changed the world have gone without. And I believe that we really should evaluate these sages up against those our culture holds in high regard today. What are we truly longing for in our lives? What secret desires are we wanting them to validate for us? Because I guarantee you that pop stars and athletes and A list actors aren't primarily concerned with the stuff that Buddha and Jesus and MLK and Mother Theresa lived and died for. If you can actually ask yourself what baby Northwest's (or whatever the cuss his name is) parents would dress him (her?) in if attending a Bat mitzvah, or if Posh Spice would drink this particular protein shake (if she is even "cool" anymore), you've already lost it. God bless 'em, they're just people who happen to be rich trying to figure out this freaking life. But to idolize them simply because they're loaded? Yikes.
Then again, what do I know? I rescued a homeless dog, wrapped a Cal-trans orange handkerchief around his neck, and named him Kevin.
