price of every thing …
real cost is toil and trouble
of acquiring it

Based on the passage:

The real price of every thing,

what every thing really costs to the man who wants to acquire it,

is the toil and trouble of acquiring it.

From the book, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations … better known as, The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith (London: W. Strahan and T. Cadell, 1776).

Way back when I was in high school at Grand Rapids Creston, the high school that my Dad graduated from and the high school that my oldest son graduated from and a high school that no longer exists, I got in trouble for something.

This was odd because by the time I got to high school I pretty much knew where the line was and I rarely and I mean rarely crossed that line to where I got into trouble.

Sure there was the bucket of water out the window on to the band in the parking lot and the firecracker in the apple but those were isolated incidents of opportunity.

Anyway, I cannot recall why, but I was required to show up after school and with all the other students guilty of low level crimes, I was given an empty box and sent out to police the school grounds.

The school security guards were out there keeping us at until the time was served and we were all called to the back parking lot to empty our boxes of trash into the bins behind the school.

Along with the trash I picked up, I came across a pop bottle which in Michigan, could be turned in for a 10 cent deposit.

As I emptied by my box, the bottle got away from me and dropped into the bin.

“Oh nutz! ” I yelled and dropped my box and hauled myself up on the lip of the bin and started to dig through the trash, looking for the bottle.

I slipped off the edge of the bin and landed back on my feet outside the bin and I grabbed the edge, ready to try and hop up again when one of the security guards caught my eye.

He gestured to the bin.

“Think about it,” he said.

And paused.

“Is it worth it?”

When you consider the cost, the real price of every thing, what every thing really costs to the man who wants to acquire it, is the toil and trouble of acquiring it.

I left the Coke bottle behind.

There are folks today who will list all the benefits that we as a Nation enjoy thanks to the efforts of that man currently in office.

All the benefits.

All of them.

Sorry I am still working on it.

Back in history, President Eisenhower was asked to the list the contributions and accomplishments of Vice President Richard Nixon that had been made as a member of Ike’s administration and Ike responded … “well, if you give me a week or two.“

But as I said, there are folks who CAN list the accomplishments of that man currently in office.

And I will ask.

At what cost?

And when you consider the cost, the real price of every thing, what every thing really costs to the man who wants to acquire it, is the toil and trouble of acquiring it.

I have to ask.

Was it worth it?

Think about it.

these are the days of
miracle and wonder and
don’t cry baby … don’t

Adapted from the refrain of the Paul Simon song, The Boy in the Bubble that goes:

These are the days of miracle and wonder
This is the long distance call
The way the camera follows us in slo-mo
The way we look to us all
The way we look to a distant constellation
That’s dying in a corner of the sky
These are the days of miracle and wonder
And don’t cry, baby, don’t cry
Don’t cry

The song came out 40 years and has the verse about:

It’s a turn-around jump shot
It’s everybody jump start
It’s every generation throws a hero up the pop charts
Medicine is magical and magical is art
Think of the boy in the bubble
And the baby with the baboon heart

And I believe
These are the days of lasers in the jungle
Lasers in the jungle somewhere
Staccato signals of constant information
A loose affiliation of millionaires
And billionaires and baby

Staccato signals of constant information.

I spent the weekend up in the State of Ohio (and such a state that State is in … as I understand it most of the folks who live there CANNOT spell OHIO unless someone else first gives them the O and the H) moving one of my kids from one place to another place.

I left on Friday with a backpack with some clothes for three days, my iPhone and my credit card.

I flew.

I ubered.

I uhauled.

I stayed overnight.

I ate.

I got rides from available family when I could.

I shopped.

Didn’t sleep for three days it seemed.

Hands are swollen from lifting and toting but I survived and kid survivied.

I handed that credit card over when I had too.

Read the credit card off when I had too.

Started services.

Stopped services.

So long as everything showed that magic word, approved!

All I had was a backpack, an iPhone and a credit card.

Some numbers and a connection.

Staccato signals of constant information.

These are the days of miracle and wonder

This is the long distance call

The way the camera follows us in slo-mo

The way we look to us all

The way we look to a distant constellation

That’s dying in a corner of the sky

These are the days of miracle and wonder

And don’t cry, baby, don’t cry

Don’t cry

Even my enemies will say no one can pack a uhaul the way I can pack a uhaul.

moment you’re suspended
knowing nothing and no one …
not even yourself

There are a few times in life when you leap up and the past that you’d been standing on falls away behind you,

and the future you mean to land on is not yet in place,

and for a moment you’re suspended, knowing nothing and no one, not even yourself.

From The Dutch House by Ann Patchett (Harper Perennial: New York, 2021).

Time marches on.

As Willie Wonka said, “Oh, you can’t get out backwards. You’ve gotta go forwards to go back. Better press on.”

But there are those moments.

There are a few times in life when you leap up and the past that you’d been standing on falls away behind you, and the future you mean to land on is not yet in place.

Maybe these are life changing moments when one part of your life is at an end and a new life starts tomorrow.

Sometimes you see it coming.

Sometimes you see it was coming when you look back, and you say should have seen that one coming.

Sometimes you might not even know it happened until years later and you say, you know what …

I have long been fascinated by these isolated moments in your life when you are in that moment, suspended, knowing nothing.

As an example, back in the day I played a lot church league softball.

Baptist Church league softball.

If you ever want your faith and testimony challenged play Baptist League softball.

I was challenged a lot and failed a lot.

BUT I DIGRESS.

Every so often I might get a hit and ended up on base and it occurred to me that while on base, time kind of stopped.

The was a finite time that I could be on base.

There was an infinite time that I could be on base.

While on base, my clock stopped.

I couldn’t (well maybe I could have) ask for time out to use the bathroom, answer the phone or respond to any number of calls on my attention.

I was on base.

I was safe.

I was safe on base.

And in softball as well as in baseball, there was no clock running.

No one could point to a clock and say I had been on base too long or that time was running out.

I was on base so long as I was safe.

OR until someone else on my team did something so I could score or get out and maybe the side would go out and I was no longer on base regardless of what I did or said.

It was a magic time.

The past that I’d been standing on fell away behind me, and the future I meant to land on was not yet in place.

Admittedly that ‘on base’ moment is a snapshot of moments where the past that you’d been standing on falls away behind you, and the future you mean to land on is not yet in place.

Sometimes these moments of the time are an elevator ride.

Sometimes these moments stretch on and on where the past that you’d been standing on falls away behind you, and the future you mean to land on is not yet in place.

And for a moment … of maybe a lot longer … you’re suspended, knowing nothing and no one, not even yourself.

Between barstools was the way some folks put it.

And that’s where I am right now.

The past that I have been standing on has fallen away behind me, and the future I mean or I hope to land on is not yet in place.

I am suspended.

Still know things I think but what to think that I should know when the future I might land is not yet in place.

I am reminded of the Steve McQueen role in the movie when he said:

It’s like that fella who fell off a ten-storey building.

What about him?

As he was falling, people on each floor heard him say “So far, so good.”