Turning back the clock...

The Stock Market. Wall Street. Real Estate.

Benchmarks. Unmovable structures of time-honored wealth. Until now.

With the recent demise of American economy, individuals are reevaluating priorities and measuring sticks. Materialism is on the way out, old-world family values on the way in. Little steps are manifesting across the country, evaluations of what really matters.

Families are gathering back around the dinner table, but tonight’s meal hasn’t been delivered or traveled through a drive-up window. This meal is a time machine of its own, a trip back to simpler times. For a fraction of the cost, a typical American family of four enjoys a wholesome meal, concocted with love.

This spring new seeds of change will be sown in patches of dirt that once held grass and fancy shrubs. Neighborhoods are changing to make way for the past, water-hungry grass is relinquishing its hold to life-giving gardens.

Expensive weekends of traveling are now spent at home with Mother Nature. Tomorrow’s meal will emerge from the earth, tended from planting to harvest with a family’s combined effort of love, patience, and togetherness.

Soon, every home will find a small patch in the manicured lawn ready to meet its demise for a greater good. With a succession of small steps like these, the impact of our material society lessens and we begin to gain a foothold on true values.

Wet + Naked = Ideas

What is it about turning on the shower that instantly floods my mind with ideas and thoughts in a torrent of activity I can barely contain? I mean come on, I’m naked and never seem to have either a pen or piece of paper stashed anywhere useful. And I’m not talking about things I need to pick up the next time I’m at the grocery store (though they do pop up like debris in the floodwaters). I’m getting the solutions for never-ending problems at work, new ideas I should write about, a new discussion topic for my next meeting…I haven’t seen a solution for any global situations yet, but who knows when those will show up.

The amazing part is, no matter what secret memorization trick I try, the moment I turn off the water they’re gone. It’s as if my towel literally erases them from my mind like it was a white board.

In an attempt to contain them, I have tried a couple solutions, but neither the dry erase markers or the liquid eyeliner seem to have any staying power (and I was racking up $12 in cosmetics per shower at one point). I’ve thought about a waterproof Dictaphone (is that even still a word?) I think the only thing left is a grease pen, and I’m hesitant to try it because then I’m adding a whole element of clean up I don’t exactly have time for.

For now I’ve settled for dripping all over the floor while I try to hold my elbow at an unnatural angle to keep the paper from getting so soggy the pen won’t work anymore.

EMPOWER YOU, EMPOWER ME