Our neighborhood is incomplete. There is an area behind us that has streets, street lamps and plots marked out for homes. But the homes never came. So we felt it was safe going back there to run. Well, I learned that just depends on your definition of "safe".
There were bugs everywhere. They were attracted by the light in the middle of the darkness. Just coming back from Bible Study had me thinking about how we are called to be a light unto the world. That in the midst of darkness, the unsaved should be running, as fast as they can, to the light. But that is not the case, and I blame us, the church, for not loving as much, unconditionally. But let me get off the preacher box.
The bugs were everywhere. I was expecting the mosquitoes, especially after a warm winter and all the rain we have had recently. So I bathed in mosquito repellent before I left the house. They are so abundant that I felt as if I was at war with them They were attacking every part of my body that was not sprayed and I was racing to spray that area.
June bugs, ok I can handle those. They are cute. I remember picking up as a child and playing with them. And let's face it, its June. They will be gone in July. The crickets were a bit creepy. They were everywhere and jumping around me. Those were annoying but I could handle those. So far, the bugs I had seen were bugs that I expected.
But I forgot about the spiders. And we are not talking Charlotte's web spiders. We are talking big ugly spiders that jumped one to two fee in either direction, when they felt threatened. And apparently, I was threatening when I ran passed them. Some are flat and light in color but huge. If you make a fist and look at the circumference of your fist, where your thumb curls over your pointer finger...that big. And then there were some just a bit smaller but their legs went about an inch to two inches in the air and then back down. Those jumped high.
Well those spiders had me doing the curly shuffle all over the street. And I am about as fluffy as Curly, so I probably looked as silly. They would jump one way and I would try to jump the other way. Or I wouldn't see them until they were flying in the air and so I would come to a complete stop on a dime and turn and go the other way.
But they helped my time. When I finished, I received a "Congratulations, this is Tiger Woods, you just recorded your best time ever." Wuu huu...on a casual day, I beat my best time ever. Life is good, even with spiders.
Things I didn't expect:
- Loving a casual run
- laughing at spiders
- Running with my husband would be fun
- Different forms of running result in different pace times, I think on my DOR I am going to explore running techniques
- That it takes me about 20 minutes to warm up before I feel good running.
- That going a day without some form of movement would seem as if something was missing that day.
- OH, and I found out that a couple, in our Bible Study are runners, and have run the Boston Marathon...pretty cool, huh?
I'm hoping to be able to run with my hubby at some point...I'm just not comfortable yet. Did I mention I love reading your blogs??? I think I need one, too!! Kris :)
ReplyDeleteWe are not getting out of this depression anytime soon. Its going to get a lot worse for most of us. It didn't have to be this way. Greed ruins everything. If you don't believe it, then ask any professor of economics.
ReplyDelete"As mass production has to be accompanied by mass consumption; mass consumption, in turn, implies a distribution of wealth -- not of existing wealth, but of wealth as it is currently produced -- to provide men with buying power equal to the amount of goods and services offered by the nation's economic machinery. Instead of achieving that kind of distribution, a giant suction pump had by 1929-30 drawn into a few hands an increasing portion of currently produced wealth. This served them as capital accumulations. But by taking purchasing power out of the hands of mass consumers, the savers denied to themselves the kind of effective demand for their products that would justify a reinvestment of their capital accumulations in new plants. In consequence, as in a poker game where the chips were concentrated in fewer and fewer hands, the other fellows could stay in the game only by borrowing. When their credit ran out, the game stopped."
Marriner Eccles, FDR's Chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank - 1959
In other words, the first Great Depression was caused by greed. The rich couldn't settle for reasonable pay. They had to have more and more and more. That caused a giant shift in buying power from the majority to the rich. When the majority lost their buying power, they lost their ability to support the economy. Einstein said basically the same thing in 1949.
Its even worse now. Ordinary people havn't only lost their relative buying power. They have also lost their savings, home values, pensions, and benefits. This has been happening gradually for the last 30 years. Meanwhile, the rich have become super incredibly rich. The richest 500 Americans are worth about 2 trillion dollars. More than the bottom 40% of American housholds combined. The richest 1 percent are worth about 17 trillion dollars. More than the bottom 98% of American households combined. Thats just insane. I don't care how much work for humanity the rich claim to do. Its nothing but a cover for their own greed. We don't need anymore rich people to create jobs or make donations for charity. We need them to get reasonable about how much money and assets they keep for themselves.
Don't believe their excuse about paying more income taxes. They don't pay enough. For every tax they pay, they get an obscene profit, bailout, or kickback from our government to cover it. We had a progressive tax system that worked for over 40 years. It prevented too much wealth from accumulating at the top. In 1976, the middle 80% owned about 2/3 of America's total wealth. Reagan lowered taxes for the rich. Bush lowered them again. Now, the richest 5% own about 2/3 of America's total wealth. The lower 95% own about 1/3. America's wealth has been transfered from poor to rich again. Now, we have another depression.
Don't believe it when the rich claim to be getting poorer. Property values have gone down for everyone. Thats because of the concentration of wealth and income. When the economy slows down, property values tank. So when rich people complain about lower net worth, its a trick. They still have the same buying power on average.
Everything that is happening with the economy is happening because too much wealth has been taken away from the majority and concentrated into the private vaults of rich people. The same ones on TV telling us how much they want to help the world. Its a big lie. Just another way to promote their own business and get more of our money. Rich people don't want to help the world. They want to own it.
Now, the economy is ruined. Obama can't fix it because the rich won't let him. There will be no bailout for the people because the ones with all the money won't settle for less. They want more. Its going to get a lot worse. Say goodbye to the American dream and hello to the American nightmare.
Please copy and spread the word.