Blog 2548 – 10.19.2022

Optimism Balanced With A Little Healthy Skepticism

1. Like many of you I have fallen victim to what I call “magical thinking.” Wishing cannot make it so, no matter how hard we may try. Optimism must be balance by a little healthy skepticism or we are always confounded and heart-broken when things do not turn out the way we thought they would. Still in my heart of hearts I choose to be “Glad and grateful that everything that I could ever want or need is already mine and coming to me at just the right time and in just the right way from my loving and infinite source.” Does everyone have my best interest in mind? Hardly. Still in the crazy quilt that is this particular adventure in space and time every piece of fabric and every stitch is important and has it’s place.

2. Yesterday as I was getting gas a young man approached me and asked if I had a dollar I could spare. At first I said No and then I thought and remembered that I had three ones in my wallet. You see a dear friend several years ago taught me several tricks to saving money. The first and most important is never to spend or give away all the money that comes to you but to always put some aside. One way I do that is by trying to use cash as much as possible and by saving all the coins that I receive in change, cashing the coins in for one hundred dollar bills when I have enough rolled coins to take to the bank. My friend said she liked to save hundred dollar bills and keep a cash stash. I decided to save one dollar bills with significant letters on them denoting the treasury where they were printed, till I had a hundred to turn in for a Benjamin. Then I got the big idea to pick several letters of the alphabet to hold onto. At first it was just D’s for David to which I added L’s for Linda, my lovely wife, then E’s for Emily our dearly departed daughter, then J’s for Jonathan, our handsome, intelligent, hard working son, and pretty soon I found myself saving A’s, B’s, C’s, D’d, E’s, F’s, I’s, J’s, and L’s. To make my cash stash grow even faster I then decided to start considering all the five dollar bills that I received in change as “mine” as well. It is fun to spend money when you have a real “cash back” program like mine. The other one’s without the above letters that I received in change I decided to keep in my wallet for tips and for those occasions when someone asks if I have a dollar that I can spare

3. Remembering I had three K one dollar bills in my wallet I corrected my answer to the young man and took all three out and handed them to him. He handed two back and said he only needed one. I was surprised and asked him, “Are you sure?” And he said, “Yes” so I tucked the two ones back in my wallet. I watched him use the line he had used on me to at least two other people also getting gas that must have said No to him. He should have taken the other two from me. Maybe he thought everyone should be able to spare a dollar. Many people these days no longer carry cash just plastic. I use credit cards too, but for the last several years I use them only as charge cards not credit cards paying the balance each month so I never have to pay any interest charges. Saving money can become habit forming. I used to think myself poor because I never had any savings or money to spare. But now I consider myself rich. The true definition of rich is “enough.” Most rich people are unwilling to admit they have enough no matter how big their pile grows.

4. I have a healthy skepticism regarding sales people, professional people, political and religious people trying to get their hands on my money. I still am optimistic though, believing yet in the kindness of strangers. And so I try to be a friend to everyone I meet and above all to be kind. I would never want to lose a friend over a dollar.

Your friend and fellow traveler,

David White

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1O9TSiE35PKzupP8NjHY7QDRKHN4HWngE/view?usp=drivesdk

Never Enough