Posted by
Optimus Magnus on Thursday, July 16, 2009 2:19:53 AM
For years, I have described shopaholics as people who are trying to fill empty holes in their lives. Another year has passed for me recently. Here I sit at this keyboard with seven Matchbox/HotWheels cars in front of me. Sure, I'm fascinated with cars. Many of the cars depicted by my collection of replicas are machines that I don't have a hope in all get out of ever owning. So, by owning a likeness, an idol perhaps, I can kid myself that I do own one of (fill in the year, make, and model). To someone else, I might say, "Do you realize how much money you could put towards retirement if you just stuck that money in the bank? Why can't you be happy with what you already have (and do not stop to appreciate)?"
You know, I said in a recent post that libs don't always get it wrong. For example, when attacking materialism, libs are very fond of asking someone of affluence the question, "How much is enough?" I'll be lambasted for saying this, but that is a legitimate question. The best comeback to that question is, "I'll know it when I've got it." I believe that this is for the individual to decide. (Note to the car companies: bring back 'cars a la cart'--pun intended.) How will I know when I have enough, though?
Why can't I be happy with what I already have? Have I conditioned myself to believe that no matter how much I have, it will never be enough? Forgive me, my Conservative family, but maybe Obama is just what we need as punishment for losing sight of what is truly important in life. Our economy is built upon people spending money they don't have to buy things they don't need to impress people they don't even like. Common sense tells us this is wrong; at least, it does when we are looking at someone else doing it. Michael Jackson, God rest his tortured soul (for that is indeed what he truly was), helped to point the way to me when he sang "Man In the Mirror". He told me to take a look at myself. Due credit also to Robert Plant for asking me if I liked what I saw. I've been on a bookstore/cheeseburger bender lately. Even though I can actually afford the spending I am doing, I'm collecting reading material faster than I can ever hope to read it. I'm chomping cheeseburgers faster than I can burn them off. I am also collecting cars to the point where I've got duplicates because I forgot I had a certain (fill in the blank) in a particular colour already. I can't do this anymore. I must stop awhile and take stock of what I have, enjoy it, and thank GOD for lending me this stuff.
Do you know why people on both sides of the aisle despise Sarah Palin? She actually clears the bar set so high for Conservative politicians; she forces many people to look at themselves and see that they don't measure up to her. She's faithful to Todd, just like I am faithful to my wife. She is Trig's mom. She is a woman who scraped and scrapped to earn her degree by going to several different schools and transferring the credits (the same way many of us do). She lives up to the ideal of pulling herself up by the bootstraps and making something of herself. She is unafraid to take a risk such as walking away from (until now) the biggest job of her career. She is fiscally frugal AND socially Conservative. (For those of you in Rio Linda, she "walks the talk".)
Why do we love her so much? As stated in the above paragraph (in so many words), she is one of us.