Aunty Acid by Ged Backland for February 15, 2024

Aww, here’s a quarter. Call someone who cares.

Preaching to the choir.

Get out and do something. Take up karate. Learn to play an instrument. Get in a Scrabble club. Float thru the Grand Canyon. Think for yourself.

Get off your fat a$$!

I hear you Aunty! Bought a car last August and purchased an extended warranty with it. I was told it was a great company. The engine light came on recently, the shop said they would contact the company and how great they were. Just my luck, it was something they won’t cover. Thankfully, it was only 290.00 but that’s more than enough when you were not budgeting for that.

Considering age, fixed income, paltry pension and the recent huge rise in the cost of EVERYTHING, I’m with you, Aunty. Can’t even afford the gas to go to the movies like I used to. And, all my extended family have either passed on or moved away.

BUT I am not complaining, as I have had a good life and am full of gratitude for the roof over my head, a bed to sleep in and food in my pantry.

Old age is so you don’t mind dying.

It’s not cheap dying either. The average funeral costs over $9,000.00.

I beg your pardon … Who Promised You a Rose Garden?

There was a time when you would have had to labor the whole day just to keep a roof over your head and food in your belly (food being more important) just to stay alive… At some time we learned to co-operate with others to and make enough food to barter with others for things you didn’t have time enough to grow or make yourself… bringing us to our present day when we are all so dependent on these other people and what they each contribute to our society, that if we were left all on our own someplace isolated, having to actually make all the things we consider necessary for a “comfortable” life with beautiful homes, cars, schooling, and someone who can take care of any ailments that might arise, by ourselves…. we wouldn’t be alive today. As a result of our combined efforts, we have all reproduced, and been able to raise children to take our places on this planet, though we still have a place on the planet even when we don’t work and have those that are working support us!.. and we even enjoy so many “extra” nice luxuries in life. even for many, NOT having to work at all, because of a governing force taking some of what the “workers” produce, from those that are still working and have jobs, to bestow upon others who don’t want to have to work, or who there are no jobs to do!.. which also brings us to a point where we all are going to overwhelm what this planet is able to provide to support us all in the manner we all consider necessary… way beyond the bare necessities of food and shelter!… and for the ‘’"fun"we all now think of as one of our rights!….which is why there are those that feel it is their duty to put a stop to further development of our population which will all self destruct if it isn’t stopped! Of course the people feeling this way are those who are mostly the ones that are benefiting the most from others supplying them with all these luxuries!.. ($$$$)… and have never had to toil for their own daily food!…

Once upon a time when I was a young lieutenant, I was put in a POW camp. Not a real one, but a training one. It was like looking at the real thing through a telescope from another planet. The purpose of the exercise was to remove the “shock and awe” element from the the event should it happen and to give us some tools to deal with our captivity.

Part of the experience was solitary confinement. It was one of the more effective “torture” (again barely resembles the real thing) methods that was used on me.

It was then that I learned that all that we have is ourselves and each other. The bank account, the fancy car, the expensive home, the impressive job title, and all the other means by which we normally measure success, are meaningless.

I came away with a less materialistic look on life. I can enjoy the simple things like taking a morning walk under the stars and watching the sun rise. Watching children play and “making a joyful noise unto the Lord,” and even watching the bees patrol my yard looking for clover and for flowers. Mostly I enjoy the company of other people.

I consider myself to be affluent but that is a consequence rather than an end. I went through the motions that my financial advisors gave me: don’t buy what I can’t afford, participate in the 401K, and took their advice on where to invest.

Arguably, the most misquoted verse in the Bible is “Money is the root of all evil.” The correct verse is “The LOVE of money is the root of all evil.” I live by another piece of wisdom from that book: “What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world, but loses his soul?”

Viktor Frankl was a Jewish psychiatrist in Austria who was interned in the Auschwitz concentration camp (another captive environment). He wrote about his experiences in his book: Man’s Search for Meaning. I reread the book from time to time. In the book he states,

“Don’t aim at success — the more you aim at it and make it a target, the more you are going to miss it. For success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue, and it only does so as the unintended side-effect of one’s dedication to a cause greater than oneself or as the by-product of one’s surrender to a person other than oneself. Happiness must happen, and the same holds for success: you have to let it happen by not caring about it. I want you to listen to what your conscience commands you to do and go on to carry it out to the best of your knowledge. Then you will live to see that in the long run — in the long run, I say! — success will follow you precisely because you had forgotten to think of it.”

I also believe in the Gospel according to Albert Einstein:

“A human being is a part of the whole called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feeling as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.”

Try dying – now that ain’t cheap.

Thanks Joe!

Blame the billionaires and millionaires.

Dang, we just wanted the time of day………not instructions on how to build a clock !

Pity Pot!!!!!!!!

Why, because the price of booze has gone up over the years Aunty, as has you consumption rate.

I agree, Aunty.

Have you seen how expensive dying is?

I guess her wine delivery didn’t show, so she has to settle for whine.

right?

The best things in life are not “things”.

auntie must’ve had an off day – this whining doesn’t sound like her.

considering the alternative, i’ll take the expenses, such as they are. we grow our own veggies (spring’s almost here, yay!), which cuts down on food expenses considerably. and makes friends and neighbors happy, too. we’re never going to be rich, but i can’t complain… ☺

Democrat fascist cause all the hard times history proves it

It beats the option IMO

My major expense: There are books I have not read yet.

Some of those books, the Authors haven’t finished Writing them yet.