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.