Got My Licks In
Sun., December 7, 01:31 PM
I go on saying I dislike holiday gifting, and usually no one cares. And I’m boxed in by birthdays as well as by other people’s customs. Son-in-Law, for example, was brought up with gifts on Christmas, although he blusters about how people – including his family – always get him things they know he doesn’t want.
Actually, he’s easy. I bought him a big box of razors last year and he’s still raving about that, so this year he’ll get another. And with that kind of thinking, all my shopping is done.
I answer short surveys with “I don’t care” or “I don’t participate…” But I had a couple of long ones that allowed me to speak my piece. One of those showed me a big-ass sound system (nine speakers!) with multiple screens, evidently meant to be interactive television as well as a computer of some sort. Question: What is the first thing that comes to your mind when you see this? Answer: Expensive. Another question: Why do you say you probably would not buy this? Answer: It is totally inappropriate for my house. And, borrowing a simile from my dad, “it would be like putting a saddle on a jackrabbit.” Whoever reads that probably won’t get it, but it felt good.
The other survey kept asking questions like, is your shopping done and are you going to spend more or less than last year. Pfft! But then they asked, “What gift are you looking for this holiday season. Be specific.” The italics are mine; I was delighted to tell them. I don’t like holiday gifts; our family concentrates on birthdays. No one can give me what I really want: world peace and a better economy. Again, it will get lost in the barrage of requests for overpriced toys – for adults as well as children – but it felt good to me.
I mentioned peace first because it’s more important. But I think too many leaders still fail to understand that there will never be peace as long as there are some people so much richer than others that the unprivileged will be dissatisfied. Furthermore, communication technology makes certain that everyone in the world can see what they don't have. And I am not looking for a totalitarian government.
Some people are worth more than others. They work harder, or they have worked longer to gain the skills they need. Perhaps they take physical risks, or do some kind of work that the rest of us consider unpleasant. I have no problem with their earning more than I do. Generally, I don’t complain about that kind of inequality. But I find myself getting angrier about the trends.
I can understand someone’s being paid ten times more than the rest of us. In extreme cases, I can understand salaries or perks that are a hundred times more than mine. But there is no way that anyone in the world is worth a thousand times more than I; and when I read reports of someone retiring with a package worth a thousand times more than mine (and I had to build mine myself, without pension plans), I am absolutely furious. I will not starve. But I foresee a future where people will either be very rich or very poor, with no one in between, just because our generation allowed people to be greedy. To put it succinctly, it ain’t right.
Things for which I’m grateful:
- I am very glad that my water heater broke last winter. It was a very large tank that heated up during the off-peak hours, leaving us enough hot water to last through a normal day. This year we have JM, who believes that a shower consists of running the hot water till there’s none left. We could have been up shit creek.
- I’m glad that I was not particularly inconvenienced by the snow. (I think I stopped liking snow when I began driving. The variables become too great.) I’m glad I didn’t lose any work hours to the weather, because it looks as if I’m going to lose time to funerals…that’s for another entry.
