Vow of Poverty

Writing for triond is like taking a vow of poverty. How should we pay you your 11 cents?? Funny.

Except for one or two crazy weeks temping for, and in the delicious irony of, a lottery company, I have been unemployed since Oct. 6, 2006. Oh I’ve made a few bucks painting, driving a truck, scratch tickets you know, but have lived the middle class lifestyle, whatever that is, thanks largely to my wife. Who has herself now been unemployed since March 1, 2009.

So, as couples do, we have been arguing of sorts lately about money. She likes to read historical romance novels. She tells me some of the characters of the English aristocracy used to feel dealing with money was demeaning. They had people to do that for them. Of course many subsequently went bankrupt.

So I’m glad to have someone who believes in paying attention to money even as I would like to be able to pay someone to deal with it for me. Likely I will not be able to afford that; becoming a Donald Trumpish type guy, that is. Still, who can deny the appeal of being like the Donald?

My wife, that’s who. Not just personality wise but rich-ness wise. Who needs all that money, really? Well, the longer Obama is around the sooner more and more people will have less money to deal with. Except of course for Obama’s closest friends, and by that I mean Goldman Sachs. So maybe it’s a good thing. I grew up having no money worries, no parents scrimping and saving although we did not have an in ground pool or anything like that, neither was meat rationed as in some households.

I’m attached, in the spiritual sense, to material comfort. I don’t want an in ground pool because then I would have to have a pool man. I don’t want to have to learn about ph levels. I think I could even give up electricity if I had to. Hey man remember the 60s communes? Back to the earth and all. Let’s give it a try. If we have to. I’d rather see the economy come back, truthfully. I’d rather see jobs, businesses, all that wretched capitalism that made life in America so great for so long and still largely is, continue to thrive.

But I’m working on not being attached. Because I believe the pendulum does swing, there is karma. And we have elected Obama and Pelosi and Reid. Really, it’s Emmanuel, Goldman Sachs, Geithner, Madoff who are running the show. Oh and Bernake, man of the year after all. And like their predecessors Bush and company, they have only one end in mind – and it’s not the average American’s bottom line I feel certain. $32,000 to learn how to shoot heroin, did you hear that one?

So, I’m veering wildly off into crazy politics and I wanted to be spiritual here for my 1 cent earning for this column to be paid next month, less new health care taxes. I guess I’ll have to write a followup column. Stay tuned, I need the penny.