SOMETIMES “LOSING IT ALL” IS NOT QUITE ALL IT’S CRACKED UP TO BE EITHER

                        

For a man of considerably modest financial means, I've been blessed with a real interesting circle of friends. One of them lost a million dollars in the stock market just about the time I found out I qualified for unemployment and am therefore not in immediate danger of imminent collapse.

Like most rich folks I know, he worked hard for it and for the right reasons. He figured that the more money he made, the better he could provide for his family. No, he wasn’t born into whatever it is we call the financially better off than most of us are. And at a year shy of 50, he’s wondering whether it’s all been worth it because in all this struggling, he sort’ve got out of touch with the people he’s doing it for and now what he wishes for most is love.

I may be naïve, but in my experience, that happens to all of us, at some point in time or another. I’ve seen what it can drive a person to, especially in hard times, and what it can drive a community, a region and a nation to, as well.  As tragic as it is, sometimes it can happen for a good reason, though.

In the first place, at the rate this high lifestyle is costing the planet, if it’s not slowed down some, there’s going to be less and less to pass down to our sons and daughters, and their sons and daughters. That’s one good reason to re-evaluate our priorities. And whether over-industrialization is causing the greenhouse effect or not, it’s certainly not helping it any. I’m sure that streets with horse-drawn transportation didn’t smell real good but I can’t imagine Chicago a century or so ago ever ranking out as bad as LA does on a warm commuter evening today.

Second, when we’re working as hard as it takes to make more than we really need, we’re sacrificing the enjoyment of it. We’re stressing out, shortening our lifespan and guaranteeing that most of what we’ve got left isn’t going to be that much fun either. More importantly ~ at least in my house ~ we’re not being there for those who love us and need to be loved in return.

Third, it’s hard to pay attention to things going on in the larger world when we’re constantly that tired. It’s easier to react than it is to think things through. None of us, from the meekest to the mightiest, makes the best decisions under that kind of stress.

For Americans, at least, there’s something else that happens to us as a nation. We forget that this is a land where all of us ~ regardless of any other qualifer except being a human being ~ are equal under the law and in the eyes of that God In Whom We Trust. We forget that we’re a family and that families pull together, however much they may disagree, bicker and spoil Thanksgiving consistently. We forget that deep down inside, most of us want the same basic things and that maybe it’s just a matter of scaling down the size of that stuff before the planet gives up on us or we kill each other in the quest of more rooms than we can live in and more cars than we can drive at one time.

Maybe when we don’t have so much stuff to take care of, we’ll find more time to enjoy what we’re really doing this all for. Maybe love’s not supposed to come with so high a price tag. And maybe losing it all is really a chance to start over and do it right this time.

I sure hope so. I’d hate to think we’re going through all this for nothing.