My daughter got behind in her school work in December. What with the holidays in November, she thought she’d have plenty of time to catch up over Christmas. But as things went, with the frozen pipes and tree branches covered in ice snapping limbs and cutting off our power, then our laptop dying…she didn’t get to her work.
But she’s a trooper and put her ‘nose to the grindstone’. Over the past couple of weeks, she’s been doing one week’s worth of work in each of her classes per day, working between 10-12 hours a day, while I have concentrated all my attention on doing whatever I can to help her.
Her dad is ‘waiting in the wings’ for her to get finished. You see, he is waiting for me to help him with his homework, too. He’s got a giant bid to prepare for a job he is getting ready to start.
And my son in college, recently sent me an email, reminding me that it is time again to fill out his FAFSA for his student grants. It’s nice to be reminded but this is not something that needs to be done right *now*. It goes on my list after doing our taxes for this year.
And I start doing that the 1st of next month. It usually takes me a couple of days, as the first thing I do is total all our receipts for the year. I’ve got bags of them. One thing for sure, it’s a lot quicker to do the taxes now that there are software programs to make my job easier.
The first thing I used to do at this time of year is study all the new tax codes. You see, I’ve been in charge of doing my family’s taxes are far back as I can remember: Schedule A, Schedule B, Schedule C, Schedule D, you name it and I’ve filed it.
My dad raised me to have a sense for business, to be a Steward of family Values.
Everyday if I bother to even look at TV, there’s a story about another *smuck* who has lost all their money. Now a lot of us may bristle over my use of the term *smuck* but that really is too “bad”. For the way I m seeing it, is that a lot of us simply didn’t do our ~homework~ when it came to investing our resources.
The stock market has never been a “sure” thing. Wise and savvy investors have always studied a stock, pouring over financial statements in order to determine a company’s worth and profitability. It’s the responsible thing to do, that is. And what we’re looking at now, is simply the result of not being responsible. Lots of people desired to gain without doing any ~homework~.
When even my daughter understands that she can’t expect to get an “A” or a “B” in any subject, if she doesn’t do any ~homework~.
I find it absurd so many of us expect our governments to come up with some magic wand that will somehow restore all the ‘wealth’ we lost through speculation. Gee, if that works, we’ll be lined up at the casinos next, looking for someone to insure our losses there.
How about we start being Responsible and Accountable for our choices and our decision making? Like the decision to invest in stocks? Like the decision to trust in those who had no substance of character? Like the decision to even listen to those of us who have no substance of character?
If we ever expect our governments to have ethics and integrity, it has to start with us, first. If we ever expect our governments to be Accountable and Responsible, we have to be Accountable and Responsible ourselves. For our OWN choices.
What’s going on is not Liberty; it is not about Freedom. For with Liberty and Freedom comes Responsibility and Accountability for our choices. It’s about License. The license to choose as we please and blame something or someone else when our choices turn out to be foolish ones.
I guide to cease our crying over spilt milk. However much money has disappeared, don’t count on getting it back. Instead, learn how to make due with less. For the end result will be to discover and realize how much less we really need in order to be happy and content.
Our Economy based on credit consumption is OVER. It’s a proverbial dead horse. So spending any more money and time shoeing this dead horse, is simply going to increase our losses and retard our recovery.
It’s time we started doing our ~homework~. It’s time we were PRODUCTIVE at home and in our communities. Let us realize that whatever sense of security we imagined we had, it was all an illusion, insulating us from realizing we are members of our human race.
For there are a lot of people throughout our world who NEVER had such opportunities of investing and NEVER dreamed of having enough wealth to feel secure. It is not a “Right”. Nor are any of us “entitled” to it.
Once we cease our whining and complaints about being victims of deceivers, THEN we can start on our road to recovery. For the only ones we have deceived, have been ourselves.
Sue Ann Edwards
tumel
and in re-reading this time I found...
Surface Earth
January 26th, 2009 - 2:46 pm
Let the church say Amen!
PLL, CordieB.
January 28th, 2009 - 1:22 pm
Hi !!! {{{Cordieb}}}
{{HUGS!!}}
I live in a town where rumor has it, Seattle & Tacoma send all the homeless people they find on their streets. It costs less to take care of people here then in the cities, so people are bussed in.
Hohoho and Harharhar…”investment portfolios”
Most of the people around here are doing their best to simply keep on living. Keeping the utilities turned on and having anything to eat.
There’s a place in town where most “tourists” stop to stock up before heading to the beach communities. I try to avoid this place close to the weekends but sometimes I get caught having to go to the store to get something myself.
I’ll be sitting in my car, waiting for my daughter to finish her shopping and observe different people. I observe how Fear-filled, uptight and judgmental a lot of us are. Parents will warn their kids about and away from certain people.
Like the man standing with the sign saying “will work for food” or the woman sitting with her dog on the curb, asking for pennies. The woman’s struggles written on the lines of her face and the lack of hope in her eyes; her dog her only companion.
So whenever I hear Mr. or Mrs. Snooty Tooty warning their kids, I get out of my car and show their kids something different. I show them how I would like to be treated if that were me with the sign or sitting with my dog. As the adults start to stare, trying to shoot blades out of their eyes, I’ll look up from under the brim of my logger’s hat.
Where simply the look in my eyes causes them to shrink like I’d poured salt on a slug. And then they slink away, having been rattled down to the depths of their souls.
“Appearances” are always deceiving. That’s what makes it so easy for me to *hide* in plain sight.
So what, inventories of cars & trucks are stacking up? I bet inventories of horses and buggies did the same thing after Ford invented the production line.
And how about all the cheap *crap* coming from China? Like lawnmowers with plastic wheels and plastic pieces that break easily? When did “durable goods” change places with “disposable goods”?
I’ve got an idea! How about a “Homeless Barbie?” Instead of her pink sports car, she’ll have a shopping cart?
We’ve been striving to reach ideals that are illusions of anything lasting or durable. Placebos of worth, placebos of self respect and self esteem. Our VALUES have been directed in accumulation of *stuff* rather then in accumulation of qualities of character.
The cycle we have just started, is the cycle where anything and everything on the ‘outside’, that is not backed up with substance of character on the ‘inside’ is dissolving right before our very eyes. And will continue to do so.
The end result will be:
Us beginning to pull from the inside of us, all the wealth and treasure that been inside of us for so very long, but hidden from our recognition and realization. We will find out how much *stuff* and how many *things* we don’t really need in order to feel happy or self fulfilled.
Because no matter how much of the cheap *crap* we’ve accumulated, it NEVER HAS brought us a sense of fulfillment that ENDURES.
Just yesterday I suggested to someone they might invest in goats. The State Highway Departments like to rent goats. They eat the tall grass and garbage along the sides of the highways. I guess I could say it was a way to “go green”.
It’s time for *new* businesses to THRIVE! There are opportunities all over the place for filling *niches* in our market. *Niches* created by the collapse of other markets. There are a lot of us who could use help and services and new products. Americans are IDEA people and this is a season for ingenuity for “Necessity is the MOTHER of invention!”
January 29th, 2009 - 11:58 am
I love this idea of goats:)! It is a very Go Green way.
If I were a young student in todays time, investing towards some sort of career, I feel I would most likely study biodynamic farming and end up going to peoples homes to help create backyard vegetable gardens:)
January 29th, 2009 - 12:09 pm
and.. if I were to start a business now, it would be in the food industry, I would open a little place near universitys or colleges and offer smoothies made of fruit and greens, salads, and soups. Maybe name it The Three Ses:)
February 1st, 2009 - 6:56 am
[...] So, is the epiphany that we all need some resetting? [...]
February 3rd, 2009 - 6:50 pm
Hi {{{tumel}}} !!!
I’ve been working 12-14 hour days since mid December being “super-mom” and “super-wife”.
I’m the member of my family that deals with stacks of bureaucratic paperwork and number crunching…I can make mountains of difficulty go ~poof~. Simply because I can bring a LOT of Power of focus to any situation or *crisis*.
The first of every year is always this way for me. Hours of work accounting for all business done the previous year, while setting things up for the coming year. Compiling the ‘books’. Auditing the ‘books’. Closing the ‘books’. And budgeting for the coming months.
That’s what I’ve been doing. And that’s why it has taken me longer then ‘usual’ to write my response. *Smiling*
I’m taking a *break* and doing something I thoroughly enjoy. All work and no ‘play’ simply makes me feel like I might as well be dead. Nononono, not for me. Last night we all sat around the TV with 3d glasses on. With my daughter commenting on how STUPID it was. Yes, and that is what made it so much FUN to laugh at ourselves!
“Biodynamic farming” is one of the things I would say right now is a SURE investment. Your Intuition is coming in LOUD & CLEAR, isn’t it? This is one of the key industries that has a BIG future. It might take the next 3-4 years before it becomes obvious to others, but it is going to take off like a rocket after that, if not before.
I like your idea of a healthy food vendor on campus. Smoothies, Salads and Soups is a wonderful name! I’m aware of how awful the dining halls are on campus. There’s only so many months we can keep recirculating the leftovers before they become *uck*. Food selection is great at the beginning of each semester but after about a month, fruits and veggies begin to look “aged”.
See what I mean? We are ALL full of IDEAS.
But we need to let go of the past, just let go. Money is simply energy. Once we let go of looking for it to return from the same source, we open up to it coming in from a different one. It’s just energy. That has been invested in the Universe. And the Universe is just WAITING to send it back to us, amplified.
Just as soon as we let go of what we imagine we have lost. It’s not lost. We reap as we sow. We sent out abundance of our life and it WILL come back.
From a different source then what we thought. That’s all.
February 3rd, 2009 - 7:10 pm
Hi {{{Tink!!!}}}}}
Some resetting? Exactly!
It’s our VALUE system that is being reset.
From an Outer one to an Inner one. From material and physical forms of Worth, to expression based forms of Worth; qualities and substance of character. From plastic people to Real people.
The shift really makes a difference in our overall health and well being. Which it has been lacking in this essential well being, that we’ve been working ourselves to death, desperately seeking but never finding.
When it comes to personal fulfillment, “Enough is as good as a feast”, as Mary Poppins would say.
February 5th, 2009 - 10:12 am
{{{:)}}}
November 2nd, 2009 - 11:01 am
[...] http://www.hera-kles.com/Blog/2009/01/25/homework/ [...]