pray. - Greed is greed. But, Love Wins...Always
It's Wednesday and about ten minutes ago I joined a group of creators (I actually joined last year, but ten minutes ago I completed the blog application to hold myself accountable) and vowed to publish a blog post every Wednesday. And, actually, I have a lot I want to write about, so you readers may hit the jackpot and get several posts this week.
Anyway, this group has a seven day blog challenge, you know, to help me get into the habit of writing everyday rather than sporadically. And, the first prompt is one I've been pondering for about two weeks now, and two Saturdays ago, during an 8 mile run between gasps of air in the muggy ass southern heat, I asked a running buddy her thoughts. So, hold on to the seat of your pants and enjoy.
What makes you most angry about the world?
That, my friends, is a very loaded question. We could be here all day, but I'll do my best to corral my ranting into a nicely wrapped present (ha, more like an oddly shaped present wrapped in left over holiday paper held together with black electrical tape...and no bows or ribbons - just a hideous wrapping job with something very pleasant and rewarding on the inside).
Alright, back to it, what makes ME most angry about the world?
GREED. SELFISHNESS.
In my opinion, GREED is the root of all the world's problems...including my own. I'm not too big to admit I'm greedy, and I let greed control much of my decision making, and I allow greed to create most of my stress.
Greed dates back to the bible. 1 Timothy 6:10, For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. Not much has changed, though, greed comes is all sorts of packages.
I've met some people whose love for money really isn't that strong, but their greed is sickening. To me greed is as simple as putting your wants/desires before your own needs and before the needs of others. We are all guilty.
Here are some examples.
We'll start with the basic needs (in no specific order).
Food
McDonald's, Hardee's, Burger King, Subway, Checkers, Cookout, Zaxby's, Krystal's, White Castle, Dairy Queen, Five Guys, and the list goes on and on. All of these place serve "affordable food fast." They all serve food that is addictive. They all have thousands of customers that are addicted. Customers who have diabetes, heart disease, and cancer, who are obese, and who are bulimic. Sure, they have customers like me as well - who eat it once in a blue moon and enjoy every morsel - but whose body rejects it as fast as it's injected.
Then, there are foods like brownies, cakes, cupcakes, cookies, chips, Little Debbie, Reese's, Hershey's, ice cream, and the list goes on and on. All of these foods are filled with sugar - one of the most addictive substances in our world. It's as addictive as nicotine and cocaine (that's strictly my opinion-I have no scientific evidence to support that other than my own observations). Again, consumers consist of those who have diabetes, heart disease, and cancer, who are obese, and who are bulimic. Sure, they have consumers like me as well who eat it once in a blue moon (yea, right, like several times a week) and enjoy every morsel - but whose body rejects it as fast as it's injected.
And, then, there's genetically engineered food. Why the hell are we eating genetically engineered food? That doesn't even sound safe. But, guess what? We eat it every single day, even when we think we're eating healthy, because there are these things called genetically engineered seeds that are being sold and planted by farmers, and farmers are being sued if they replant the seeds. What the *beep*(you know what goes here)?!
My point here is this, we know these aren't the healthiest decisions to make for our bodies. But, we do it anyway. We are putting our desires before our own needs (and, maybe, sometimes it's because we can't afford the need:organic, straight from the earth, real kind of food). And, we won't even get started on the amount of money these businesses/corporations are making off of us by cornering the market and selling the poorest quality food at the biggest quantity. You basically have to be middle class, realistically, probably higher on the totem pole, to eat healthy, real, organic food from the earth that is NOT genetically engineered.
And, we wonder why diabetes and obesity is an epidemic? Which brings me to another point...
Pharmaceuticals
The sicker we are the more money pharmaceutical companies make. The shittier food, or poison, we're injected with, the sicker we get. $Cha-ching!$
Guys the age old saying, "You are what you eat," is an age old saying for a reason. And, we'll leave that right there, because I'm not even going to into how intertwined pharmaceutical companies are with the federal government.
Or, let's get personal. My youngest sister was diagnosed with Crohn's Disease at the age of 13. She was admitted to the hospital after losing pints of blood and for being malnourished. She weighed 75 pounds at 5'4. When I saw her in that hospital bed, I thought she was dying. My heart was torn to pieces, because I thought my mom was going to lose another child. I thought I was going to lose another sibling. After trying numerous medications, one finally worked, Remicade infusions. To stay out of the hospital and to stay healthy, my sister needs Remicade infusions every 8 weeks. Each infusion treatment, at the pediatric hospital she received them at, was $20,000. To be fair, that cost includes hospital fees, which are ridiculously astronomical (and proves my point about greed even further), but the Remicade alone is about $500. My mom is a single mother with a job that pays close to $100,000 a year and provides decent health insurance, and she can barely make ends meet because of medical bills. What happens when my sister graduates college and has to pay for this on her own? What happens if she can't get medical insurance, because she has a pre-existing condition, which she didn't ask for?
People shouldn't have to worry about dying, because they can't afford their medication. I'm not in the pharmaceutical business, so I don't know what it entails. And, I realize health insurance plays another role...and that's a whole other monster. But, I just can't wrap my head around the cost of medications, and why there are only a couple major pharmaceutical companies which out produce and out sale other smaller companies.
Oh, that's right, it's like McDonald's and Walmart - they want it all.
Water
Flint, Michigan. According to the 2015 US Consensus, 40.1% of Flint's population lives in poverty, the second most poverty-stricken city of its size in the nation.
Standing Rock versus Pipeline - that's all.
Now to the other extreme. I was watching Ellen DeGeneres, and she mentioned there's a bottled water that cost $75! So, I Googled "the most expensive bottled water in the usa." The results:
What if we all lived minimally, within our means, and spent our hard earned money only on our needs and donated the rest to the needs of others? Imagine the kind of world we'd be living in. Everyone doing their part to provide for their basic needs, and then helping others with their needs. It isn't about "everyone pulling their own weight," because at some point, in everyone's life, we all need help, because no matter how hard we work, it's impossible to do it ALL alone.
It isn't about condemning someone who has fallen off the wagon. It's about helping them back up. After all, love wins in the Bible, and so I think it should and does win today.
No one likes their feelings to get hurt these days, and when they do we stir up a big national commotion about it. Why? Greed, because we think our feelings are so important that no one else can feel differently. No one likes their children to lose at a game, so participation awards are given to everyone. Why? Greed, because we think our children are most important. Seriously, I've had kids in tears because they lost a game in my classroom and didn't get a prize. Many children do not have the coping mechanisms for feeling let down or disappointed or angry, because it's always about them. Lord forbid, I go out of my way to spend that hard earned cash I talked about earlier on gifts for someone else's children to get the response, "I don't like this," or, "Can I have something else?" This has actually happened. What happened to saying thank you because someone was nice enough to think about you and give you something.
News flash: No one likes to get their feelings hurt. No one likes to lose. But, it's LIFE. It HAPPENS. It will CONTINUE TO HAPPEN FOREVER AND EVER. It's guaranteed something in this blog post is going to offend you, and I'm sorry, but these aren't your feelings; they are mine, and my feelings are just as important as yours.
Anyway, this group has a seven day blog challenge, you know, to help me get into the habit of writing everyday rather than sporadically. And, the first prompt is one I've been pondering for about two weeks now, and two Saturdays ago, during an 8 mile run between gasps of air in the muggy ass southern heat, I asked a running buddy her thoughts. So, hold on to the seat of your pants and enjoy.
What makes you most angry about the world?
That, my friends, is a very loaded question. We could be here all day, but I'll do my best to corral my ranting into a nicely wrapped present (ha, more like an oddly shaped present wrapped in left over holiday paper held together with black electrical tape...and no bows or ribbons - just a hideous wrapping job with something very pleasant and rewarding on the inside).
Alright, back to it, what makes ME most angry about the world?
GREED. SELFISHNESS.
In my opinion, GREED is the root of all the world's problems...including my own. I'm not too big to admit I'm greedy, and I let greed control much of my decision making, and I allow greed to create most of my stress.
Greed dates back to the bible. 1 Timothy 6:10, For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. Not much has changed, though, greed comes is all sorts of packages.
I've met some people whose love for money really isn't that strong, but their greed is sickening. To me greed is as simple as putting your wants/desires before your own needs and before the needs of others. We are all guilty.
Here are some examples.
We'll start with the basic needs (in no specific order).
Food
McDonald's, Hardee's, Burger King, Subway, Checkers, Cookout, Zaxby's, Krystal's, White Castle, Dairy Queen, Five Guys, and the list goes on and on. All of these place serve "affordable food fast." They all serve food that is addictive. They all have thousands of customers that are addicted. Customers who have diabetes, heart disease, and cancer, who are obese, and who are bulimic. Sure, they have customers like me as well - who eat it once in a blue moon and enjoy every morsel - but whose body rejects it as fast as it's injected.
Then, there are foods like brownies, cakes, cupcakes, cookies, chips, Little Debbie, Reese's, Hershey's, ice cream, and the list goes on and on. All of these foods are filled with sugar - one of the most addictive substances in our world. It's as addictive as nicotine and cocaine (that's strictly my opinion-I have no scientific evidence to support that other than my own observations). Again, consumers consist of those who have diabetes, heart disease, and cancer, who are obese, and who are bulimic. Sure, they have consumers like me as well who eat it once in a blue moon (yea, right, like several times a week) and enjoy every morsel - but whose body rejects it as fast as it's injected.
And, then, there's genetically engineered food. Why the hell are we eating genetically engineered food? That doesn't even sound safe. But, guess what? We eat it every single day, even when we think we're eating healthy, because there are these things called genetically engineered seeds that are being sold and planted by farmers, and farmers are being sued if they replant the seeds. What the *beep*(you know what goes here)?!
My point here is this, we know these aren't the healthiest decisions to make for our bodies. But, we do it anyway. We are putting our desires before our own needs (and, maybe, sometimes it's because we can't afford the need:organic, straight from the earth, real kind of food). And, we won't even get started on the amount of money these businesses/corporations are making off of us by cornering the market and selling the poorest quality food at the biggest quantity. You basically have to be middle class, realistically, probably higher on the totem pole, to eat healthy, real, organic food from the earth that is NOT genetically engineered.
And, we wonder why diabetes and obesity is an epidemic? Which brings me to another point...
Pharmaceuticals
The sicker we are the more money pharmaceutical companies make. The shittier food, or poison, we're injected with, the sicker we get. $Cha-ching!$
Guys the age old saying, "You are what you eat," is an age old saying for a reason. And, we'll leave that right there, because I'm not even going to into how intertwined pharmaceutical companies are with the federal government.
Or, let's get personal. My youngest sister was diagnosed with Crohn's Disease at the age of 13. She was admitted to the hospital after losing pints of blood and for being malnourished. She weighed 75 pounds at 5'4. When I saw her in that hospital bed, I thought she was dying. My heart was torn to pieces, because I thought my mom was going to lose another child. I thought I was going to lose another sibling. After trying numerous medications, one finally worked, Remicade infusions. To stay out of the hospital and to stay healthy, my sister needs Remicade infusions every 8 weeks. Each infusion treatment, at the pediatric hospital she received them at, was $20,000. To be fair, that cost includes hospital fees, which are ridiculously astronomical (and proves my point about greed even further), but the Remicade alone is about $500. My mom is a single mother with a job that pays close to $100,000 a year and provides decent health insurance, and she can barely make ends meet because of medical bills. What happens when my sister graduates college and has to pay for this on her own? What happens if she can't get medical insurance, because she has a pre-existing condition, which she didn't ask for?
People shouldn't have to worry about dying, because they can't afford their medication. I'm not in the pharmaceutical business, so I don't know what it entails. And, I realize health insurance plays another role...and that's a whole other monster. But, I just can't wrap my head around the cost of medications, and why there are only a couple major pharmaceutical companies which out produce and out sale other smaller companies.
Oh, that's right, it's like McDonald's and Walmart - they want it all.
Water
Flint, Michigan. According to the 2015 US Consensus, 40.1% of Flint's population lives in poverty, the second most poverty-stricken city of its size in the nation.
Standing Rock versus Pipeline - that's all.
Now to the other extreme. I was watching Ellen DeGeneres, and she mentioned there's a bottled water that cost $75! So, I Googled "the most expensive bottled water in the usa." The results:
- Acqua di Cristallo Tributo a Modigliani – $60,000 per 750 ml. ...
- Kona Nigari - $402 per 750 ml. ...
- Fillico – $219 per 750 ml. ...
- Bling H2O - $40 per 750 ml. ...
- Veen 5 - $23 per 750 ml.
That there $60,000 water comes in a 24 karat gold bottle. Who needs that?! Think how many families could be provided CLEAN water with $60,000! GREED!
There are even companies that are tapping GLACIERS to collect water to sale. How is that respecting Mother Nature? Mother Nature is the way it is (or was) for a reason called the ecosystem. Why are people trying to destroy the environment to make money for themselves? GREED!
Clean water is a NEED not a luxury. Why the hell is it being bottled and sold in gold bottles when so many people worldwide have zero access to clean water?
Housing
From endinghomelessness.org:
- The number of poor renter households experiencing severe housing cost burden–those households in poverty paying more than 50 percent of their income toward housing–totaled 6.6 million in 2014, increasing 2.1 percent nationally from 2013, with 33 states seeing an increase.
- In 2014, 7 million people in poor households were doubled up with family and friends, the most common living situation before becoming homeless. This represents the first significant decrease since the Great Recession. Still, the number of people in poor households living doubled up is 52 percent higher now than in 2007, prior to the recession.
- On a single night in January 2015, 564,708 people were experiencing homelessness—meaning they were sleeping outside or in an emergency shelter or transitional housing program.
Affordable housing which is safe and healthy is a need and a right. It shouldn't be a luxury. I understand some people make poor life choices which lead to severe consequences. But, more times than not, people are working and trying to make their way in life and simply can not. At least that's my opinion, but maybe, I just have more faith in humanity than other people. And, back to those making the poor choices with severe consequences, do you think they'll turn their life around by being ignored and left on the streets with no hope or a place to go HOME to?
Now, let's look at housing another way - as a status symbol. I can name, on less than one hand, how many people I know who are NOT in mortgage debt. I'm in mortgage debt. But, I also admit, my home is way more than I need. It's excessive, yet, I have one of the cheapest mortgage payments out of a majority of my friends and family. I look around my own neighborhood. I see the perfectly manicured lawns, expensive vehicles in the driveway, swimming pools in the backyard. I see interiors that were professionally designed and nothing out of place in a home which houses a family of five. I see Facebook pictures of perfectly painted and decorated walls.
Do I think there is anything wrong with this? No. Not at all. If it makes you happy, have at it. But, ultimately, if we're all truly honest with ourselves, we'll find our homes are the way they are because of greed. We want nice things. We want to spend our hard earned money on nice things - on the things we want. We put our own desires first. We may even put our own family's desires first. But, it's still greed, because we want them to have what we didn't. It's not a crime or even necessarily wrong, but it's still greedy.
What if we all lived minimally, within our means, and spent our hard earned money only on our needs and donated the rest to the needs of others? Imagine the kind of world we'd be living in. Everyone doing their part to provide for their basic needs, and then helping others with their needs. It isn't about "everyone pulling their own weight," because at some point, in everyone's life, we all need help, because no matter how hard we work, it's impossible to do it ALL alone.
It isn't about condemning someone who has fallen off the wagon. It's about helping them back up. After all, love wins in the Bible, and so I think it should and does win today.
No one likes their feelings to get hurt these days, and when they do we stir up a big national commotion about it. Why? Greed, because we think our feelings are so important that no one else can feel differently. No one likes their children to lose at a game, so participation awards are given to everyone. Why? Greed, because we think our children are most important. Seriously, I've had kids in tears because they lost a game in my classroom and didn't get a prize. Many children do not have the coping mechanisms for feeling let down or disappointed or angry, because it's always about them. Lord forbid, I go out of my way to spend that hard earned cash I talked about earlier on gifts for someone else's children to get the response, "I don't like this," or, "Can I have something else?" This has actually happened. What happened to saying thank you because someone was nice enough to think about you and give you something.
News flash: No one likes to get their feelings hurt. No one likes to lose. But, it's LIFE. It HAPPENS. It will CONTINUE TO HAPPEN FOREVER AND EVER. It's guaranteed something in this blog post is going to offend you, and I'm sorry, but these aren't your feelings; they are mine, and my feelings are just as important as yours.
The greed inside me isn't always intentional. Sometimes, it's learned behavior. And, that's ok. We have to think of ourselves and take care of ourselves. And, sometimes, we have to put ourselves first. But, when our behavior turns rude and disrespectful because we make it all about us, a problem arises.
Is it really going to kill us to smile at a stranger, even if, they are getting in our way and holding us up in the grocery store? You may ask, "What does this have to do with greed?" Everything. The reason we get so upset with someone getting in our way is because we can't get to what we want or desire (most of the time - rarely people get in the way of our needs, but you never know when they may need the same need more). The reason we get so upset with someone who is taking forever or holding us up is because we desire or want the time they are taking from us. But, maybe, a Divine being is taking that time from us for a reason.
I know there are many arguments against the thoughts I'm sharing here. And, that's ok, however, it's still how I feel. My feelings are just that - MY feelings - and you have your own feelings, and I respect that. I'm not so selfish (or greedy) to think my feelings are the only ones that matter.
I could go on forever pointing out the greedy things I do or say in a day. I'm just as guilty as the next person. Greed is greed; sin is sin. One isn't bigger or worse than the other; it's all the same. The difference is some people choose to recognize it, reflect upon it, and start making plans to improve. They put their plans into action. Then, they extend their love to those around them, and love wins...always.
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