Something

It's late and I'm tired. But I have an afterthought post.

This evening one of my colleagues and I had a pleasant philosophical discussion about the woes of today's society. It makes me feel like a crusty old curmudgeon when I talk about things these days, as if I've lived many decades of mistakes-filled years leading to a wise, old beard full of white hairs. The truth is that I'm just as dumb as the next twenty-something, but I still calls it like I sees it.

We talked about civilization and how we, as a society today, may not entirely think of others when springing into action. This goes beyond mere selfishness, which we all can agree includes taking forever to get around and making the rest of us miss the previews, but involves people living for themselves. I'm very guilty of this, too.

One of these ideas is making money verses making something of yourself. A lot of decisions made by people, young and old, are made on the account of money and how much we can gain by doing something. It is an end to justify all means. I need to make dolla-dolla bills, y'all, so I can buy my sweet laptop, so I can get online wherever I want, so I can look for the second job I need to score so mo' money, because I needs that HD TV. Well, I don't want to make this into an anti-capitalist rant, or sound like we all need to stop being such consumers. I'm a proud American, after all, and I love the hundred different brands of bottled root beer that our society has made.

However, the idea of making something of ourselves struck me as old-fashioned. My colleague was referring to gaining skills, a trade, wisdom, life, and compassion, through the important institutions of education and service to society. Once we learn how to do something, we are obliged to put it in use for the service of everyone else. We also must learn what's important to do in relation to others and what we like best out of all of that. It's one thing to charge people money, and tons of it, to fix their leaky faucets or represent them in court, it's another to feed off of their misunderstandings and ignorance like greedy extortionists (you hear me credit card companies!). I mean, no one says when they are a little kid, "I want to grow up and profit by exploiting college kids and the elderly with their lack of knowledge of compound interest and global economics."

Life sure isn't as simple as my current beef with Bank of America, but I think we would all be in better shape if we asked ourselves from time to time, how am I making something of myself for me and for others?