The Jolt
I was thinking today about how the new administration in all its forms and contortions has affected, even jolted everyone in this country in one way or another. Centibillionaires have lost billions, Billionaires have lost millions, multimillionaires their hundreds-of-thousands, the list continues. Families have been torn apart, some families have disappeared altogether, people have died in custody and many are lost to the aethers it seems. The stability of the nation, even the world is under attack as stalwart fixtures of unity are shattered in a moment of ego. Our sanity is being shaken while life long trust in the securities our nation provides are fired upon by mindless human weapons of mass deception. Comfort, well-being and the pursuit of happiness are quickly becoming the gated community of the few as liberty is dismembered and re-categorized into multiple non-existent definitions, and adjectives must validate a variable concept of freedom. In our new paradigm friends become enemies, enemies become bed-mates, war becomes a beachfront casino, people become compost, blood becomes currency. The future of life itself may be defined by the following: productive - therefore valuable, insignificant - but possibly utilitarian, and nugatory - therefore expendable like a child with cancer who threatens US border security and dogs of valor that can go hungry to save the US from catastrophic economic calamity.
I like to walk to the market instead of driving. Actually I mostly walk everywhere these days. There's this guy I pass almost every time who sits at the corner with his dog Dammit and I make a habit of stopping, sometimes sitting to chat. He's, I'd say, about 70, he's homeless and his name is Vince. Toothless, he always smiles and laughs boldfaced when I see him and tells Dammit to greet me, her tail lashing like her slobbering tongue. Yesterday while we sat and watched shoppers drive passed, I asked him, "How's the world treating you, Vince?" He replied, "Great, just fine, no worries." We don't talk politics. I figure he needs more support than argument so I never go there. I don't know what his politics is, never asked. Anyway, I just blurted out, "So you're not feeling overwhelmed or anything?"
"Overwhelmed by what?"
"All the changes going on."
"Things are always changing."
"And you just keep doing what you do?"
"Yep. I don't have nothing, I don't want nothing."
"Why?"
"If you don't have nothing, you got nothing to lose. I've got my dog, though. I worry about losing her. But people are kind. Sometimes we have a place to go sometimes we don't. I just like to laugh, she likes to dance and we're okay."
I remember my father telling me a similar story. When I was a boy I asked him if the depression was hard for him. He said, "It was hard for many. But me, not in the least. I didn't lose anything because I had nothing to lose." This seems to be a way of living that just isn't in the mind of the modern capitalist culture, to live without stuff. I've thought about it over the years, what my dad said, and now I hear it again from Vince 60 years later. I was lucky to have had a good career, gathered a few things and a little money. But I've tried to live my life like none of that matters, like no stuff I own has any actual value to me. I think people have value. Friends have value. My family has value. Children with cancer have value. Dogs of valor and all animals have value. Our country has value. Countries who have always stood beside us have value. Humans under siege have value. Liberty and freedom have value. Nature has value. Vince and Dammit and all the others like them have value. Losing these would be tragic.
But the stuff? The stuff that obsesses the minds of oppressors and is the fantasy of the ignorant? I don't lose sleep over it.
D7
I'd put this in the Philosophy Forum if it was still a thing. But I guess I'll have to drop it here.
= new reply since forum marked as read
I do most of my food shopping there but am disturbed by their 'specials' which consist of many plastic 'utensils' and a load of niche appliances to make things I've never even heard of. The charity shops are full of them after they're discarded - people think they are a good idea at the time .... you know the story.
In general I think Aldi is great, but they should get rid of some of this plastic garbage. I don't know if this is done elsewhere, but many people in town, when they want to get rid of something, they put it out the front for anyone to take. I've had some great scores like this - and also disposed of a lot of STUFF.
Stuff will kill ya 
'