More stuff

I have to write this somewhere, so a blog post.



I am having a moment of indignation, people worrying having to give something to people who don't have a job, or pay a higher minimum wage.  Well, I sat down and tried to figure it out, what it for someone to live a pretty basic life in America.  From my figures, it takes a wage of about $15 per hour to have an apartment, car, clothing, utilities, fast food once a week, a movie every couple of months, buy and occasional gift, etc.  It won't pay for a family or a sitter if you have children -- just a pretty basic life. 



And here is the thing, we voted with our pocket books for just this situation, when we sent our jobs overseas.  Then American workers with a decent wage had to compete with workers making $10 a DAY (some less), with no healthcare, and no workers' rights, with billions and billions of people wanting wealth.  We said yes to Free Trade so our factories had to compete with factories who had no safety requirements, where they could spew endless amounts of pollutants into the the water and the air, some subsidized by governments who charged tariffs on American made products.  We said we wanted our products made somewhere where paints can have lead in them and inspections are sporadic.



With our pocketbooks we said,  I'd rather be able to have 10 t-shirts instead of 8, and 10 pairs of shoes instead of five, than have my neighbor working.  Give me cheap so I can have more.  Let that person who waits on me at Walmart make next to nothing as long as I get my pile of stuff.  I have my smartphone, and my cars, and my computers. 



The truth is that there isn't enough work for everyone, if we just looked at supplying people's needs, food, clothing, even a basic car.  So growth and greater wealth has to be based on making more stuff so we can buy more stuff, made by more desperate people who have no stuff. 



Yes, there are people who abuse our system and take advantage.  But there are many more who feel hopeless.  There are many more who know that they will never have a decent job paying a decent wage.  You should look at how many of the recently created jobs are at the bottom of the pay scale.  You could have two of them and still be scraping the bottom.  I know because I was out there fighting for a job, with a college degree and many years of experience, being offered $10/hour for jobs that required someone with skills.  And business were offering that because they could.  There are lots of desperate people, who will need two of those low paying jobs.



Here is how anyone manages their money.  They look at what's available and what is more important.   We need to ask ourselves with each purchase whether it is more important to have more stuff, or if it more important to see our neighbors working. 

On hope

Hope is what I have.
I can't see it.
My evidence is my belief
In the possibility.

It can happen
So I hope.

Would it take a miracle?
Yep.

Who cares besides me?
No one.
No humans.
Just me.

But I hope.
I must hope.

It is this cave
This place
This secret
This wall
This smile
This stiff upper lip.

No drama
No problems
Right?
It's better.
Game face is on.
Walk
Work
Function.

Be normal
Be pleasant
Be there
Be calm.

The mask works.
No one cares
While no one knows.

But I have Hope.
I do have hope.
I must have hope.

No hope means no life.
No hope means darkness.
No hope means futility.
No hope means grief.

So I hope.

Hope fights sorrow
Hope fights rage
Hope fights desperation
Hope fights bitterness

So I must hope.
I CAN HOPE
Because I have faith.

Faith breeds Hope
Faith breeds Strength
Faith gives Possibility life.

And Faith brings meaning from insanity, from loneliness, from sickness, from death.

I have hope
Blessed hope
Forever hope

I won't stay knocked down

I have been knocked down.
I refuse to stay knocked down
No one, no thing is going to put me under without a fight.
I stand

I stand
defiantly
in spite of
though bowed down
though bent
And I will stand straight again soon.
I may be battered
I may be cut
I may be bruised
I may be momentarily down.
BUT I WILL NOT STAY DOWN!!

I will not run
I will not hide
I will stand
facing forward
defiantly
in spite of
though fearing
though hurting
I WILL STAND
even if it seems foolish
even if it seems hopeless
even if others leave
even if I'm ridiculed.

And I will change

I will get stronger
though weak now
I will be joyful
though grief beckons
I will be giving
if I have but a penny and song
I will be me
not hardened
not toughened
not spiteful
not mean
I WILL HOLD TO GOD's vision of me

You may push my buttons
but I will sing a song
You may try to name me
but I will keep my God-given name
You may knock me down
but I will get back up.

This I choose.
This is the choice God gave me.
I choose to live.
I choose to stand.

Fire

So we had a fire last night.

It wasn't a big fire, though it might have been. We were home when we weren't supposed to be home, and saw the fire we wouldn't have seen, and called the fire department to put it out. Meanwhile, we tried to put it out ourselves with water, which at least kept it from getting bigger.

So I was just wondering what would have happened, had we been away in Indiana as we had planned, if my sister-in-law hadn't said we were going to have to wait for another time. I was just wondering what would have happened if we hadn't decided that going for the day was too much this time.

Our little disaster would have gone to a big disaster in just a few moments. I know many people don't think God has anything to do with our lives, and they just see circumstances. We just "got lucky."

Maybe so, but I will happily give God the glory, firmly believing he protected us. In the end, which way would you rather be wrong? If you died believing in God and there wasn't, you would have lived a moral life and died in peace and gone to nothingness. If you died believing in God did not exist and he did, you would have lived a life to please yourself and gone to whatever tormenting place.

Which mistake would you rather make?

Just wondering....

Why "Just Wondering"

We all get these ideas. We see the world around us and we are in awe. And we say to ourselves, "Why can't they...." Then when you voice the idea to someone, and they tell you how stupid it is. We say, "Just wondering." So instead of letting the people close me know all these crazy ideas, I will put them here so that anyone in the world who finds them is welcome to ridicule them, starting with you.
Right now I am wondering about all the waste we send to the dumpster and through the toilets, or other miscellaneous places. With all the billions of people in the world with garbage and body wastes, living and dying, leaving behind tons of garbage, not to mention our own dead carcasses.
Isn't there some point when it's going to be too much for our planet. Isn't there some way for us to cut back? Wouldn't it be worthwhile to cut back a little?

Just wondering...