Tue 30 Jun 2009
Wealth
Posted by Rick Berry under Aikido
[3] Comments
After Michael Jackson died Thursday, I went online early Friday morning and checked out Amazon.com. It is amazing how profits and monetary considerations affect people. What I was looking for was the 1983 video, “Motown 25, Yesterday, Today, Forever.” What I found was $19.99 crossed out and a new listing of $129.99 for the collectors version VHS tape on sale. Now I find some listed for prices of $69.00 to $199.00
Today’s newspaper commentary headline shouted “Mega-wealthy survivors have never had it so good. They were talking about the drop in prices for goods and services which we average folks have trouble buying because of salary reductions and/or layoffs. It was also stated that the number of millionaires listed dropped significantly. The super wealthy have no such problems. However, wealth is relative as is everything else.
When you consider health, money may buy extremely good doctors’ care, but when you look at all the celebrities dying lately, money doesn’t seem to have helped much. Michael had his own cardiac specialist right there in the house and it didn’t save him.
However, speaking of wealth, feeling GREAT is priceless! When I look around the country and throughout Kokikai, I realize that one cannot put a price tag on having a multitude of friends.
When I look at our dojo with Wilmington Aikido, Sanuces Ryu Jujitsu and Quiet Storm members I realize how truly blessed I am.
Consider this: I am extremely wealthy primarily because of my attitude, belief structure, convictions, dedicated martial arts principles and way of life. It took me a while to get here.
Anyone care to join me?
June 30th, 2009 at 7:11 pm
I’m with you there. I’m so grateful for the network of friends.
July 4th, 2009 at 10:43 am
Psychologically, when asked, people are prone to admit they would be satisfied if they had double their current earnings. If a person earns 15,000 a year, 30,000 would set him straight. This goes for the bigshots too. When asked, a millionaire said “If only I had 2 million”…
July 31st, 2009 at 10:44 pm
It is symptomatic of a dysfunctional society that most people fail to recognize the kind of wealth you are referring to as true wealth, and instead, chase after an idea of wealth that is fleeting and illusionary, no? Recently giving advice to a younger friend of mine going through difficult life junctions, I told him, “Everything has a price, you just have to sort out what the [real] pro/con is.”