. . . that drove a 1984 Honda Accord. Definitely part of the rat race. A referre perhaps, a sponsor, I don't know. But, some stock brokers drive german cars, and new ones at that. This guy wasn't a dumb shit either. On the contrary he had something on the ball. And two years prior, when I'd joined this stock-broker, then a plumbing supply salesman, at a yacht club to crew his boat for a reagatta, he had been driving a new Land Rover.
As I sat in his office in '01 he explained that the life in sales had taken its toll. He'd grown tired of not being home with his wife and daughter. The Land Rover had been less than stellar. He'd bought a shit house in his hometown, put out his shingle, and started helping people plan for retirement. He's made a chunk, and needed more time to research the market, to know what to do with it. Why not use other's people's commisions to finance his studies. Win win.
I'm the kind of guy who is lazy with my retirement funds. I've actually resumed reading the statements, after a two year hiatus. It was just too painful. But, I stayed the course. Put away for a rainy day; think long-term. Hell, I was lazy, and scared. But maybe, just maybe, reversing this trend, and employing the austerity measures of my aquaintance is the answer.
First, learn more. I'm not too dumb. Maybe every other book, no every third, should be a financially insightful tome. Pull my head out of my ass, and put my nose to the investment grindstone.
Second, or maybe first. Tighten up. I'm worried about raising a self sufficient daughter. Bring on the Austerity. Noting like going without to teach you that you can go without. Simple pleasures!
Delayed gratification, signified in a mid-eighties Honda, may be the ticket. And, In fact, delayed gratification is the truest check-out from consumerism. I've got good dishes, good appliances, a decent work truck and enough surfboards to start a school. Stop buyings SHIT!! Start buying stocks? Bonds? Mutal Fund Shares? Treasury Bills? Real Estate? Naked Short Sales? I'll get back to you on the details. Or, as my highschool English teacher used to say. That's a really interesting question. Why don't you research it and get back to the class with a one page report!
Friday, March 19, 2010
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Fundamental Change, or Band-Aids on Brain Tumors
I read an interesting article in Fine Home Building this month. It was actually more of a four page add, like most trade magazine articles are. The item for sale was a software program that aids in the design of "passive houses."
See: www.passivehouse.us
While the idea of building a house that uses very little energy is great. You have to ask yourself at what cost. Hay Bail houses are one thing. But when you are designing a 2500 square foot house with 16" thick walls, what is the cost. There is enough framing material in there for at least three and a half 1200 square foot houses. Granted, the houses perform well, but they use excessive amounts of insulation, special windows and doors, and literally tons of wood to reach this performance level. They also cost an arm and a leg. The featured house was on Martha's Vinyard.
Is any technology that helps us feel better about opulent living really all that helpful? Just because it is possible to build a mansion that doesn't need a furnace, is that a good reason to do so? When will we accept that our lifestyle, not our tools are the problem. If I understand even the most conservative climate scientists right now, we are living a Cadillac existence on a planet with a Yugo carrying capacity.
In other news, health insurance reform is about to pass. You would think that we were socializing medicine, by the way the opposition characterizes things. But, the fact that some liberals are dissatisfied confirms my suspicions that this legislation will probably be more of a political victory, that a revolution in health care. It is not changing the way medical malpractice is handled. It's not changing the way medical care and medicines are payed for. It's going to make insuring everyone more manageable. That is certainly good, but will it solve the long-term problems.
I was listening to The Story, on WUNC.
http://thestory.org/archive/the_story_994_Ted_Marmor.mp3/view
In this segment Ted Marmor, who is basically a health care policy wonk (a really good one), framed the issue perfectly in his opening statements. Basically, paraphrased he said something like, "We have still failed to answer the fundamental question of weather we wanted to treat health care like a commodity on the free market, or a service everyone deserves. Should health care be like public education, or like corn and hot-dogs."
That blew me away. Now, I know what you are all thinking. That opens a whole other can of worms. It does. One worth opening I think. Sure public education has its issues, but overall, it does ok. And there are still private schools for the well off. I'm a pretty healthy guy. Give me public medicine. If Dick Cheney needs a high dollar cardiologist, I'll give him a tax credit. I don't want to belabor the point discussing health care. I want to see what this could mean for all of us personally.
The arrival of our daughter has Deanna and me thinking hard about how to live the right life. Of course we don't want Quinn to want for anything, but we want her to be hungry too. We both love working hard, but hate being consumed by work. We want Quinn to be healthy, and we feel like it's more important for us to be healthy now too. So we are more conscious of our food selection. Organic, natural etc etc. Now I'll stop speaking for my family, and go out on my own.
I keep telling myself, we will live outside the box. My brain is constantly fighting to define the path. Reduce debt, save money, stay well, learn invaluable skills. And in the back of my mind, I think if I pay off the house through radical saving, or squirrel away enough cash, or make the right investments, I might just be able to reduce my workload to spend more time with my family. Live some true adventures. Make a positive difference. Live a life that might inspire my daughter to reject the framework of the wasteful entitled American lifestyle. Live a truly happy and meaningful life.
But, I'm off track at my first step. I'm thinking of ways to poke my head above the ocean of consumerism, when what I need to do is leave it completely. But how? And what about the responsibilities to those I love who are still swimming in it. My mother and father's willingness to go to work everyday to provide a comfortable childhood for my brother and I can't be disregarded. And rejecting my current life in favor of a book-filled grass shack or a salvaged sailboat, seems a little irresponsible.
How can we make fundamental changes, instead of course adjustments on a doomed path? I'm not sure, but I'm not doing any cartwheels because the richest people in our country can build houses that do not require furnaces. And, I've heard the detractors saying that socialized medicine will stifle innovation. So be it, if the availability of cutting edge health care depends on the absence of decent basic medical care for this country's poor, I'll make the trade, and I'll sleep at night.
As for what to do with my own life, that's more complicated. Maybe all of this change needs to be incrimental. Maybe passive house technology will trickle down. Maybe once a couple of seniors have a positive experience with their death panel, everyone will relax. I just really feel like I'm running out of time to make huge changes. Maybe I know what I have to do, and can't stomach it. I'm reminded of a scene in Platoon, if I remember correctly, when one of the charactes decides the war is bull shit and he's going to stab himself in the leg, and go home. Maybe I've got the knife in my hand, and I'm just really worried it's gonna hurt like hell.
See: www.passivehouse.us
While the idea of building a house that uses very little energy is great. You have to ask yourself at what cost. Hay Bail houses are one thing. But when you are designing a 2500 square foot house with 16" thick walls, what is the cost. There is enough framing material in there for at least three and a half 1200 square foot houses. Granted, the houses perform well, but they use excessive amounts of insulation, special windows and doors, and literally tons of wood to reach this performance level. They also cost an arm and a leg. The featured house was on Martha's Vinyard.
Is any technology that helps us feel better about opulent living really all that helpful? Just because it is possible to build a mansion that doesn't need a furnace, is that a good reason to do so? When will we accept that our lifestyle, not our tools are the problem. If I understand even the most conservative climate scientists right now, we are living a Cadillac existence on a planet with a Yugo carrying capacity.
In other news, health insurance reform is about to pass. You would think that we were socializing medicine, by the way the opposition characterizes things. But, the fact that some liberals are dissatisfied confirms my suspicions that this legislation will probably be more of a political victory, that a revolution in health care. It is not changing the way medical malpractice is handled. It's not changing the way medical care and medicines are payed for. It's going to make insuring everyone more manageable. That is certainly good, but will it solve the long-term problems.
I was listening to The Story, on WUNC.
http://thestory.org/archive/the_story_994_Ted_Marmor.mp3/view
In this segment Ted Marmor, who is basically a health care policy wonk (a really good one), framed the issue perfectly in his opening statements. Basically, paraphrased he said something like, "We have still failed to answer the fundamental question of weather we wanted to treat health care like a commodity on the free market, or a service everyone deserves. Should health care be like public education, or like corn and hot-dogs."
That blew me away. Now, I know what you are all thinking. That opens a whole other can of worms. It does. One worth opening I think. Sure public education has its issues, but overall, it does ok. And there are still private schools for the well off. I'm a pretty healthy guy. Give me public medicine. If Dick Cheney needs a high dollar cardiologist, I'll give him a tax credit. I don't want to belabor the point discussing health care. I want to see what this could mean for all of us personally.
The arrival of our daughter has Deanna and me thinking hard about how to live the right life. Of course we don't want Quinn to want for anything, but we want her to be hungry too. We both love working hard, but hate being consumed by work. We want Quinn to be healthy, and we feel like it's more important for us to be healthy now too. So we are more conscious of our food selection. Organic, natural etc etc. Now I'll stop speaking for my family, and go out on my own.
I keep telling myself, we will live outside the box. My brain is constantly fighting to define the path. Reduce debt, save money, stay well, learn invaluable skills. And in the back of my mind, I think if I pay off the house through radical saving, or squirrel away enough cash, or make the right investments, I might just be able to reduce my workload to spend more time with my family. Live some true adventures. Make a positive difference. Live a life that might inspire my daughter to reject the framework of the wasteful entitled American lifestyle. Live a truly happy and meaningful life.
But, I'm off track at my first step. I'm thinking of ways to poke my head above the ocean of consumerism, when what I need to do is leave it completely. But how? And what about the responsibilities to those I love who are still swimming in it. My mother and father's willingness to go to work everyday to provide a comfortable childhood for my brother and I can't be disregarded. And rejecting my current life in favor of a book-filled grass shack or a salvaged sailboat, seems a little irresponsible.
How can we make fundamental changes, instead of course adjustments on a doomed path? I'm not sure, but I'm not doing any cartwheels because the richest people in our country can build houses that do not require furnaces. And, I've heard the detractors saying that socialized medicine will stifle innovation. So be it, if the availability of cutting edge health care depends on the absence of decent basic medical care for this country's poor, I'll make the trade, and I'll sleep at night.
As for what to do with my own life, that's more complicated. Maybe all of this change needs to be incrimental. Maybe passive house technology will trickle down. Maybe once a couple of seniors have a positive experience with their death panel, everyone will relax. I just really feel like I'm running out of time to make huge changes. Maybe I know what I have to do, and can't stomach it. I'm reminded of a scene in Platoon, if I remember correctly, when one of the charactes decides the war is bull shit and he's going to stab himself in the leg, and go home. Maybe I've got the knife in my hand, and I'm just really worried it's gonna hurt like hell.
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Spirituality as a house
I've been reading two pretty interesting books. "Cathedral of The World", By Myron Arms, and "The Language of God", by Francis Collins. They address spirituality through the metaphor/method of sailing and science respectively. I admit, I've always dreamed of being a non-fiction writer that might somehow relate my life experience into some sort of compelling greater truth. I wish I related to these writers.
In contrast, my life revolves around the process of building houses, not the cosmospiritualpolitical principles I wish it did.
However, as I ponder the process, or rather the "critical path" of home construction, I see a valuable metaphor for the spiritual journey.
How could the steps involved in the creation of a house relate to humanity's efforts to understand itself through the construction/realization of a deity? My contention is that spiritual seeking and house construction share two key characteristics. Both require hard work, plain and simple. And, both are aided by, but not subject to a process--a critical path.
For home building, you select a plan. In religion a church, a tradition, or the rejection of these. In a town you build a house, subject to building codes, and architectural review. In a faith you choose a church/tradition, or you forge out on your own. In building you trust tried and true design; the Cape Cod, the ranch. In faith, the Christian, Muslim, Jewish or Hindu tradition. Or not.
Then the home must be constructed. There are steps that relate to and depend on one another, but they are not hard and fast. Adjustments can be made. The only certainty is that there must be discipline. Dispatch is important. The process must progress reasonably, but allowances may be made for failure.
As in faith. We can follow a route well trod, or forge out alone in search of something new. To make it a valuable project we must apply reason, discipline, thought, and most importantly, hard work to the project.
Why are we drawn to see a metaphorical connection between life's large and small questions? Can an understanding of the development of the modern construction of shelter, aid in the understanding of the timeless construct of meaning. I hope so. And I wonder what one tells us about the other. . .
In contrast, my life revolves around the process of building houses, not the cosmospiritualpolitical principles I wish it did.
However, as I ponder the process, or rather the "critical path" of home construction, I see a valuable metaphor for the spiritual journey.
How could the steps involved in the creation of a house relate to humanity's efforts to understand itself through the construction/realization of a deity? My contention is that spiritual seeking and house construction share two key characteristics. Both require hard work, plain and simple. And, both are aided by, but not subject to a process--a critical path.
For home building, you select a plan. In religion a church, a tradition, or the rejection of these. In a town you build a house, subject to building codes, and architectural review. In a faith you choose a church/tradition, or you forge out on your own. In building you trust tried and true design; the Cape Cod, the ranch. In faith, the Christian, Muslim, Jewish or Hindu tradition. Or not.
Then the home must be constructed. There are steps that relate to and depend on one another, but they are not hard and fast. Adjustments can be made. The only certainty is that there must be discipline. Dispatch is important. The process must progress reasonably, but allowances may be made for failure.
As in faith. We can follow a route well trod, or forge out alone in search of something new. To make it a valuable project we must apply reason, discipline, thought, and most importantly, hard work to the project.
Why are we drawn to see a metaphorical connection between life's large and small questions? Can an understanding of the development of the modern construction of shelter, aid in the understanding of the timeless construct of meaning. I hope so. And I wonder what one tells us about the other. . .
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)