morgan#1
Member
- Joined
- Dec 3, 2016
- Messages
- 295
Some of my favorite people have chimed in here! Being poor; I think we all have our ideas and bitterness about finances and such. He wants to know why to be healthy is so expensive, and someone was saying how the poor don’t care about nutrition per se. My boyfriend is Cuban and he’s beyond poor. He didn’t graduate from high school, and he uses Ebonics. He’s a trades man, union painter. At least he got that far, and I’m proud of him. His mother, Daisy is a 70 year old off the books hairdresser. She gets food stamps, I see her using cheap meat and vegetable oils and rice at every meal. She doesn’t know any better. Now the mainstream is becoming aware, so she buys organic stuff. It’s not all bells and whistles being with him, hanging out watching sports on his big tv. We don’t go out that much, and I try to make due. But when I did go out and lead the party life, that’s a bit overrated too. She has 7 children, two of them are missing teeth. Stores are getting more expensive and packaging food in smaller containers/packages. It is a mess.
I’m really going off on a tangent, hopefully I’ll bring it back to a succinct finale that will prove I’m replying to some portion of what the OP questions. I know the whole gamut of wealth and poverty. I’ve never been poor, I’m not in debt. My family is old money that has dwindled. My sister has two of everything, two cars: one is a Tupac Mercedes convertible. She drinks over a bottle of wine every night and she’s around 200 pounds. She’s 50, she’s a Yale educated nurse practitioner. She remarks that she is low on estrogen because she gets hot flashes. Oh boy. She calls her house “the estate” and calls her car “angus”. She’s on Facebook all the time, and she talks incessantly. Bottom line is money does not bring you any happiness. But it does bring you comfort, and if you’re healthy, that’s the ticket. Maybe she thinks she’s happy, but that’s a societal happiness.
I went down to Delray Beach, Florida with my sister. We visited some friends; all of them have buckets of money, I enjoyed it. But money is not everything. That’s the carrot that our society is dangling in front of us. The vast majority will not ever attain that, and society makes it so. Food stamps, they’re the government making it look like they’re humane, giving a break to those in poverty, which they put in poverty. It’s a huge catch 22. The people with government assistance; so many would never get jobs because they are shitty jobs and the jobs would pay them less than if they didn’t work.
I think what we’re all looking for is a way to see clearly and have that joy inside of us that no money can touch. Society is broken, and it’s reached its breaking point. Suicide is up 30% in the USA. And the two people/celebrities that hung themselves had millions. Kate Spade and Bourdain. Facebook is making the human condition all glossy, and nips and tucks on the face are common in 30 year olds. When I lived in LA I was 30 and I did that. So no shame. I’m not judging anyone. One thing that might help the OP is any talks by Krishnamurti. What I gained strength from hearing him talk about how we’re all suffering and enjoying; human condition.
So I’m trying so hard to find peace in myself. The protagonist in Jane Bowles’ novel Two Serious Ladies said:
"I have gone to pieces, which is a thing I've wanted to do for years," Mrs Copperfield declares. "I know I am as guilty as I can be, but I have my happiness which I guard like a wolf, and I have authority now and a certain amount of daring, which I never had before."
For me the bottom line is be strong, speak the truth, and don’t come down on yourself. The truth is not in memory, it is in the now, without thought. Everyone knows who they are, it’s society bringing us down, like a yoke. Be kind to yourself.
I’m really going off on a tangent, hopefully I’ll bring it back to a succinct finale that will prove I’m replying to some portion of what the OP questions. I know the whole gamut of wealth and poverty. I’ve never been poor, I’m not in debt. My family is old money that has dwindled. My sister has two of everything, two cars: one is a Tupac Mercedes convertible. She drinks over a bottle of wine every night and she’s around 200 pounds. She’s 50, she’s a Yale educated nurse practitioner. She remarks that she is low on estrogen because she gets hot flashes. Oh boy. She calls her house “the estate” and calls her car “angus”. She’s on Facebook all the time, and she talks incessantly. Bottom line is money does not bring you any happiness. But it does bring you comfort, and if you’re healthy, that’s the ticket. Maybe she thinks she’s happy, but that’s a societal happiness.
I went down to Delray Beach, Florida with my sister. We visited some friends; all of them have buckets of money, I enjoyed it. But money is not everything. That’s the carrot that our society is dangling in front of us. The vast majority will not ever attain that, and society makes it so. Food stamps, they’re the government making it look like they’re humane, giving a break to those in poverty, which they put in poverty. It’s a huge catch 22. The people with government assistance; so many would never get jobs because they are shitty jobs and the jobs would pay them less than if they didn’t work.
I think what we’re all looking for is a way to see clearly and have that joy inside of us that no money can touch. Society is broken, and it’s reached its breaking point. Suicide is up 30% in the USA. And the two people/celebrities that hung themselves had millions. Kate Spade and Bourdain. Facebook is making the human condition all glossy, and nips and tucks on the face are common in 30 year olds. When I lived in LA I was 30 and I did that. So no shame. I’m not judging anyone. One thing that might help the OP is any talks by Krishnamurti. What I gained strength from hearing him talk about how we’re all suffering and enjoying; human condition.
So I’m trying so hard to find peace in myself. The protagonist in Jane Bowles’ novel Two Serious Ladies said:
"I have gone to pieces, which is a thing I've wanted to do for years," Mrs Copperfield declares. "I know I am as guilty as I can be, but I have my happiness which I guard like a wolf, and I have authority now and a certain amount of daring, which I never had before."
For me the bottom line is be strong, speak the truth, and don’t come down on yourself. The truth is not in memory, it is in the now, without thought. Everyone knows who they are, it’s society bringing us down, like a yoke. Be kind to yourself.
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