Hmm.. Life First, Then Time

Life first Drive slowly Then time. ...The sign read. What an appropriate statement for this intersection. The sign resides on the three way corner of Maple and Humphrey where the traffic of two elite towns intersect. SUVs, BMWs, Mercedes, and Mercedes SUV's lay the pedal to the floor and sit to wait. For some it is the only pause their day will allow. The towns of Marblehead and Swampscott (pronounced Swampscett) are ocean front towns with their corresponding property prices. Now to maintain those property taxes and SUVs and their like, life first is an axiom. For the truth is time is short and it is the force that governs life. But how to spend that time is the question. Drive slowly is a good start. Scientist say the bigger the star is the more hydrogen it needs to burn to keep from falling in upon itself. Then there is the likes of Marilyn Monroe, James Dean, and Elvis who shot their way across the screen at night in short flashes of light. Either speed, diet pills, downers, alcohol or hydrogen; faster you go more you need. High maintenance. Now imagine if a star was growing at exuberant rates exponentially. Now there is a certain perimeter around a star that will burn all the hydrogen in its reaches. Now as that star grows the material in its vicinity it will devour. The larger the star more space it encompasses. Space it had to burn out other bodies of matter or displace them to occupy. Now if this process had no cap to it, it is not hard to conceive that in time this star will encapsulate the whole universe. Our planet of life and any others out there would be burnt away in its corona. Now I wonder if people who over-consume wonder why their are hungry people in this world? Or if they do at all. When does it cross a CEO's mind to sell a yacht, trade in an BMW for an oldsmobile, sell that house in the Hamptons, turn back 20 of 100 acres back to public forest before they decide giving people the choice between smack Ramain or Macaroni and cheese. Does it ever pass a small business owners mind twice the social cost when he purchase a BMW instead of giving a living wage to the people who run his store and support him. If he slow down enough to think, would he understand. Rome fell when it let its middle class vanish. Now lets pretend that the tax rate was 6%. And that those funds went to maintain the infrastructure that the senators said was never enough to keep their vast empire afloat. Now lets make up a number for the total population. Lets say three million, and out of that there was 100,000 in the upper caste, 900,000 in the middle, and two million in the lower economic caste. Well the middle class fell through the hole and then displaced many of the lower levels out of their occupations. Now out of the lower two million, there was few stones and even few that gave blood. So now those stones begin looking for blood to turn into food on the highways. Then those highways are falling apart because now there is only a tax base of 600,000 at 6% instead of two million at 6%. So do you think that upper caste was going to pay higher taxes? But who then pays for the military to keep the Germans out. Today Coffee Anen, suggest to the world to boost spending for aids research in the third world where it is epidemic. With the third world owing vast debts to the developed countries, it is not going to have the means to pay them back if their work force is in need of constant overwhelming medical care. Health care then begins to drain those countries of all of their expendable income that could of gone to paying down their debts. But also as their population increases their infection rates and they become more fluent in the world economy and travel abroad more frequently. Infection rates in the world ports of the developed world will increase and spread into their interiors. Plus the numbers of immigrants to those ports will bring increased danger. When the slaves in Rome coughed within their masters presence, it was the great equalizer. For it brought death in the form of the plague. For death is an equal opportunity employer. Then again you must ask, how much time have you given your kids. We are the only creature that takes twenty years to raise its youth. We control the vast environmental web. If we buy that SUV or put that nuclear plant in, or increase timber production; they are behaviors that effect that web. So we must be careful in raising our children. We need to take time to correct their mistakes and to point our own. For how we interact with our children is how they will interact with their future relationships. If we ignore them, they will ignore those around them. If we mistreat them, they will mistreat those they come in contact with. If we fill them with prejudice, they will fill others with it. If we teach them fear, they will fear others. But if we take time to teach them love, patience, understanding, truth, strength, honesty, and self esteem; they will pass these gifts on to those the encounter. Now if every one is related by six degrees, how would you like your son or daughter to affect the world? Now do you have time. Do you have time for your wife or husband who will help you accomplish this goal. Do you have time to make them smile. Do you have time to share with them. Do you have time for them to make you feel special. Do you have time to accept forgiveness from them and live tomorrow as a new day. Do you have time to enjoy what you have reaped so far. Or are you over extended from your new gained wealth. Do you live in a rotary from hell. Well you have a choice as you sit at that three way stop sign at the intersection of Mapple and Humphrey Streets; You could always turn northeast and head for Salem. But drive slowly on the way; and I almost forgot to tell you to think about yourself first, for the more you have within yourself the more you have to give. So Life first.