quietly amassed a great fortune

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I woke up with that phrase in my head.

“Quietly amassed a great fortune”.

Sounds good to me.

Another phrase that popped through shortly afterwards was “secretly gave away millions”.

Make it to use and to give away….what a plan.

Money has never been a big motivator for me.

Now that I have a family, though, the utility of money is a lot more obvious….

Money is a good thing.

Having some money is OK in my book.

I like it when it happens.

Now, to some degree at least, money is a ghost.

It’s not real….really real, at least.

It’s a concept that we all accept. It’s a system that costs money to perpetuate. It’s a quantifier that would fall apart if we decided that it wasn’t something we had any interest in continuing.

Who’d want money if everybody decided that money was kind of stupid?

We all have to buy into the thought if the thought is going to continue to work….right?

This is veering a little, but….I drive around a lot for my job.

I drive to many different areas in my town…..rich areas….poor areas….and it hit me the other day that …(often), I’ll see a ratty trailer or dilapidated house that is surrounded by some really beautiful trees or flowers.

That’s a distraction.

What are these “poor people” doing with something so beautiful in their lives?

How’d it happen that beauty quietly worked its way around the concept of wealth?

The most beautiful things in the world don’t really cost….not in the sense of “money cost”, at least.

You can’t own a sunset…even though we’ll buy the expensive beach house to watch it from.

Maybe that’s the frustrating part about real beauty….you can’t figure out how to get enough money to corral the beautiful and put your very own brand on it.

Maybe that’s why we work so hard at advertising?

You can’t own real beauty, so why not figure out a way to distract yourself from that insufficiency and just buy, buy, buy….until you’re so exhausted that you stop noticing all the impotent effort you put out chasing after the beauty that’s free to you as long as you don’t try to grab it and make it “yours and yours alone”?

I don’t have a lot of money.

I have quietly amassed a great fortune.

I may never have a lot of money….but I’m pretty darn rich.

around the lake is not around the world….but it’s a start

We rode our bikes around the lake near our home this morning.

The hardest part is getting everybody ready to do it….bike and helmets, carts and water bottles, snacks….you can imagine.

Around the lake is easy once you get everything together to do it.

Check these parents out….cycle touring in Switzerland.

They call it “cycle toddling”.

You know….it’s not the size of the trip…or the speed….it’s getting on the bike and just doing it.

Just doing it.

Do I owe Nike some money now?

I hope not.

It was a beautiful day for a ride….and a fun way to spend the morning.

Nothing hard about it….once you get past the hard part.

EZPZ.

It’s the apps

I can’t wander by our desktop without checking the email.

I don’t know who might be willing to send me millions of dollars if I provide them with the necessary bank routing numbers.

I might miss some male enhancement opportunities.

I might miss something.

Here’s a Ted talk by a young inventor who talks about how freeing it is to not have the distraction of a smartphone.

There’s an app to help you avoid wasting time with a smartphone.

I sure of it….there must be an app.

Anyway….here’s the talk….

One point she makes is how important the reaction to not having things is.

When you don’t have things, it makes you into a more creative person….out of necessity.

You have to figure out how to provide for yourself.

Maybe you make your own fun…

Maybe you invent a flashlight that runs on the heat in the human hand….like Ann Makosinski did.

We have so much.

We’re good at thrift shopping.

We’re good at finding piles of cool stuff….for very little money.

That’s a skill.

But….we’re getting a little better at getting rid of the stuff we accumulate, too.

You need space to create.

You need time to create.

Interesting point she makes….sometimes these things we have are crippling instead of freeing us.

I’m still sucked in…even though I have a pay as you go phone that doesn’t do much.

I don’t have an app to my name.

Am I poorer for it?

Do I need a smartphone?

Nah….I need to finish the treehouse.

That’s what I need.

 

seven thousand miles

I am getting ready to go to work now.

That’s the beauty of repetition….it lets you do things you tolerate over and over because you see an end goal in sight.

What’s the end goal?

Why, pay the bills…take care of your family….be a good person.

Right?

I could do this in my sleep, though.

Taking care of these things is a habit….and, really, for that I’m glad.

It would be pretty hard to justify trading your life away if it couldn’t become a habit that you stop paying attention to.

Check this beautiful and short film out.

The guy featured in the film talks about running from routine….or riding from routine….because, by shaking things up and avoiding repetition in his life, he keeps things fresh.

Maybe, even though he doesn’t use the term….and I’m not even sure if it is a term….avoiding routine lets you hold onto your “child mind”….always amazed by the new things you see?

I love being able to take care of my family. It’s a real gift to have a set of circumstances that allows me to do that. Working for the USPS is pretty cool, actually. I’m not really complaining about any of that.

What I do know, though, is that it’s the traveling that carries me through.

Seeing new things and places keeps it all in good perspective.

Maybe the really hard part….but a part that’s attainable…is to figure out how to see the commonplace with eyes that are astute enough to find the amazing in what we deal with everyday?

How can you keep the feeling alive if, when you finally stop, you can’t continue seeing the world in a new way?

Maybe the one perfect sunset is enough to let you seek out the wonderment in the common stuff all the rest of your days?

Watch this movie….it’s about 4 minutes long or so.

It’s one of the good ones.

I’m a little bit older

OK….I’m a little bit older than Jenny.

A little bit.

Some.

Check these guys out.

Why am I amazed at a difference in age?

If you didn’t notice, this lady is a little bit older than the dude.

Some.

And here they are….in Alaska.

I’m glad no one is filming me.

It’s a lot more entertaining to watch someone else’s trainwreck.

sturgill

Check this guy out……Sturgill Simpson.

So good.

There are so many packaged and plastic performers out there….like McDonalds with sound….disposable….that when somebody that seems real comes along, you really take notice.

Watch this guy’s career…I think it’s going to be a big one.

shesiadturn

We went to the Riverbanks Zoo in Columbia for Mother’s Day on Sunday.

It was something that Jenny wanted to do….and, luckily, it was a kid friendly activity.

I’m kidding, of course.

Jenny wanted to do it because it was a kid friendly activity.

I think that she would have liked to linger in the garden area of the zoo a little more than we were able (we walked fast through that section)….but we had a nice time looking at the stuff the little guys wanted to look at.

It’s precarious….figuring out the stuff that the little guys can do before it all falls apart.

Nate drew this for school.

she said turn 001

It’s his take on the situation.

It’s a true story.

We missed our unmarked turn and Jenny was mad at me for not planning for the thing we couldn’t see.

That’s how I roll, though.

I never see it coming.

Especially when I can’t see it coming.

Anyway….we got directions and drove back a mile or two….and we were there…..at the zoo.

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And, for Columbia, it was a pretty nice day.

I think that the temperature only got up to about 91°.

That’s nice for Columbia.

I think that we beat the heat.

The zoo was good….and I recovered from being a poor planner when it turned out to be close.

I wouldn’t have been redeemable if I’d kept driving like I’d planned to do.

When you’re lost, keep driving.

Stay the course.

Mother’s Day.

I’m glad I didn’t wait until Florida to ask for directions.

wiggling teeth

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The tooth fairy has come to our house a couple of times in the last month or so.

That’s the advantage of having younger children again.

They lose baby teeth….and the tooth fairy comes to visit them when they’re sleeping.

I’m getting older….and the tooth fairy doesn’t visit me anymore.

At least, I don’t think that the tooth fairy ever comes to visit me.

What do I know about what happens when I’m asleep?

Anyway, I don’t think that the tooth fairy could bring me enough money to take the sting out of losing a tooth.

Losing a grownup tooth is a bigger deal than losing a baby tooth….but we don’t seem to celebrate losing grownup teeth like we do the teeth that the little guys lose.

We don’t celebrate a lot of things that happen to us when we get older.

That’s weird.

Anyway…so….Nate gets a visit from the tooth fairy in the night, she gives him money for his tooth, and he’s getting rich.

Easy.

Probably the easiest financial transaction he’ll ever have the opportunity to make.

If it wasn’t a finite supply in his mouth, and if the losing wasn’t the end of the process, he really could get rich.

He could be a tooth tycoon if he worked out the right deal with the fairy.

That’s kind of a long winded preamble to the end of the story, though.

I looked over the other day and he had his fingers on the teeth and was checking each one for play.

“What are you doing?!!”

Of course, the answer was “nothing”…..it usually is when confronted like that.

Hands in the cookie jar, hands on a tooth, the answer would always be “nothing”.

“Nothing” covers a lot of ground.

I know what he’s doing, though.

He’s planning.

He’s wiggling his teeth and planning for his future.

This tooth stuff could be “seed money” if he plays his cards right.

What a deal.

Who can blame him, though?

I do my own version….checking things out, seeing what I’m willing to lose forever in return for enough of the filthy, filthy lucre.

Enough.

Let the teeth be….the fairy will still be around if they stay in your mouth for a while, Nate.

Don’t be in such a hurry…..no matter how profitable it is.

 

waking up…again.

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Listening to the new Sturgill Simpson album on Spotify…..so good.

Drinking coffee.

And that’s like so many mornings….listening to something with my headphones on while the house is quiet….a day off starting slow and alone….waiting for everybody to wake up.

I take a lot for granted.

Like….waking up.

There’s no day that’s average….no day that doesn’t hold the potential for something amazing to happen.

That’s not hype, either.

That’s not just the coffee talking.

Maybe some days are a lesson in perspective.

Maybe you have to really be awake to see the amazing?

It’s the potential that flows underneath the surface of the everyday that I’m missing sometimes.

There’s a website called “our open road” that I look at every once in a while.

It’s about a family travelling through South America in a Westphalia van.

It’s a big adventure that started with….starting.

They aren’t travel geniuses.

They aren’t mobility savants.

They just started out….and kept going.

(How boring is a blog where the guy only writes about the things that he wants to do? How boring is that? A person should report the ACTION….not the DESIRE. That’s more interesting….)

Report the action?

Well….I need to fix the pull cord on the lawnmower.

ACTION PACKED!!! THAT’S WHAT I’M TALKING ABOUT!!!

Awwww. Who am I kidding? Sparrow’s up and on my lap all of a sudden…..the headphones are off….it’s 6:01 AM and the day has begun….officially.

That’s my adventure….whether we’re rolling down some back road in Chile in an old van, or fixing the lawnmower and cutting the grass….where my family is….is where the adventure is.

You wake up to adventure everyday….no matter how familiar it feels.

Waking up is where it all begins.

I’m awake.