There are millions of us living under dual
identities, who we are now versus who we used to be back then. This economic
plague has changed us, it's changed the way we think and act and respond to
things. Take for instance, a credit card offer. Years ago, I would have glanced
at it with a knowing confidence. Just a quick scan and I could spot the good
ones from the bad ones, you see; I knew about these things, so trust me. Today,
I'd rather accept a stack of small pox infected blankets than a credit card
offer. Mark Twain said; "We should be
careful to get out of an experience only the wisdom that is in it and stop
there lest we be like the cat that sits down on a hot stove lid. She will never
sit down on a hot stove lid again and that is well but also she will never sit
down on a cold one anymore."
It's all too true, a tool was mentioned in conversation
and I unconsciously answered, "I used to have a belt sander." My mind continued
with a mental inventory, and a table saw, a drill press, a circular saw, a jig
saw, post-hole diggers, two nice metal shop cabinets, a twelve-foot work bench
with a vise on the end, a welder, a 65 Mustang Coupe, three guitars and on and
on, until I was almost sickened by it. I was never wealthy, at least, I never
thought of myself as wealthy. I had accumulated rooms full of possessions, a
push mower, a riding mower, a weed eater and a chain saw.
Most of these things, strangely enough, I used very
little. I had spaces for all my toys and kept them all neat. I filled up a big
house with a big yard, which I also used very little, not that I didn't have
plans. Oh, I had big plans, yes sir buddy! Big plans, once I paid down my
credit card debt and my business took off, I was going to have a swimming pool
put in. You see, I really love to swim; why in any given year, I might go
swimming two or three times. But if I had my own swimming pool in the back
yard, I'd probably swim twice as much.
www.alifeahead.com/2014/05/24/apes-suits/
I who am I? Born at the pinnacle of American prosperity to parents raised during the last great depression. I was the youngest child of the youngest children born almost between the generations and that in fact clouds and obscures who it is that (more...)