It’s another grand Friday, Y’all! Do you have enough of anything (including air in your lungs!) to say “thank you” today!?! Like … TGIF, then!
Well, one sure thing that’s happened to me through most of my life “working”, I learned the value of money … based on necessity. My parents were pretty good with their magic tricks – they both worked very hard with multiple jobs sometimes. Obviously, we weren’t “rich”. But my Dad with his mechanic skills maintained two used cars – one for my Mother who cleaned homes of “well off clients” and, one for Dad who doubled for Pinkerton Detective Agency as an armed guard and an auto-mechanic. They BOTH hustled, loved each other … and loved EACH of their four kids as best they could. That’s how they “rolled”. They wanted enough for each of us to be able to feel “human”, according to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Need.
Well, I want to take a moment to congratulate my only Child – Ayanna Lynne – on completing her work for a BA in Psychology and receiving her college/university diploma. I tell her (and I mean it!) each opportunity I get that I am sooo proud of her and the work she does ALONE with her son (Sun) Caleb Isaac. She has been providing for her and Caleb who is now 5 years of age. She has a good car, pays rent in their 2 bedroom apartment, pays for his daycare, buys food and clothing for them, cooks and cleans … Man … I am pushing back tears but the list goes on! I love you Ayanna Lynne – and Thank You for being a great Mom for Caleb …
Greed is a drug. It consumes the “patient” with extreme urges and desires to have “more than what they need”! If the “patient” sees someone else with something they “want”, they do WHATEVER they can to acquire it (even take it away!). This is why successful human civilizations have a set of “shared values” (truth, honesty, humility, respect, love, etc) upon which their social organization is based. The challenge with “capitalistic greed” is simply that “those shared values” get twisted, contorted … even destroyed by those who suffer from “acute greed”. I am sure you get the picture. The picture gets worse as such “patients” rise to positions of greater power where their “greed addiction” becomes insatiable. Look in the US’s White House for “symptomatic” sufferers. Some have ceased to be “leaders” while others are no longer “human” as they seek to satisfy their “insatiable greed”! Some may be heard uttering, “I’d rather die than switch!”
In this piece, I am suggesting that we NOT be greedy with our “stuff”. That we return to basic human values and focus NOT on greed, but in sharing (not hoarding!) especially when we have more than “we” need in our individual “compounds”. One important thing that we can see clearly is that “capitalism” at its worst can infect participants with … yep … insatiable greed, turning them into patients like 45!
Balance your approach to life. Give credit in kindness for the good things that people do for us! Don’t let “greed” escalate to “war” and vast human destruction … Can you see it yet! “Love On!”
Peace,
John I. Cook, Director
Educational Excellence 