You experience sunshine, rain, typhoons, clouds,
snow, and fog; you experience birth, death, separation, sickness, aging,
failure, success - this is the flow of life, go with it and gain your peace.
Life is fair to everyone, whether you are rich or poor, beautiful or plain,
well-educated or not. The movie stage and the actors looks different, but
everyone experiences the same emotional ups and downs. No one is better and no
one is worse. The only difference is how you experience life and give meaning
to it.
(Su-Zhen)
Jessie O'Neill describes the struggles of the rich
folks, especially the malaise of the children of the super-rich in 'The Golden
Ghetto' and many of you are probably scratching your head and ask how this can
be possible? How can you be miserable when you have everything? The answer to
this riddle is the old familiar 'money can't buy you love' theme. All it does is
to buy you specialness, which happens to be a spiritual kiss of death. Everyone
faces the same psychological monsters; they only come in different shapes and
sizes dependent on what your life circumstances are.
The other day a
colleague bursted out that I supposedly have everything. I didn't really want to
go into a philosophical discussion with her, but had I, I would have told her
that her situation is not really any different from mine. I know that she lives
in a pressure cooker; the fears of not having enough money, the worries not to
be quite as good professionally as everybody else, the fears her children might
not have the best education, and so much more. On the surface, my life
circumstances appear so much more secure and appealing to her, yet, if she woke
up in my shoes tomorrow, new monsters would pop up. It would be the same
pressure cooker, just being placed on a different stove.
We have the
choice to step out of our emotional ups and downs. All you have to do is to be
open to the next moment no matter what it brings. One day you will realize that
anticipating the next moment is meaningless. Embrace the moment and learn that
everything life brings your way is spiritually meaningful. With this simple
realization your life suddenly becomes complete and peace prevails, no matter
where you go; no matter what the season, no matter what your income level and no
matter what life has in store for you.
Showing posts with label The Golden Ghetto. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Golden Ghetto. Show all posts
Sunday, September 16, 2012
Monday, July 30, 2012
The Golden Ghetto
I was at BJ's the other day and had to fill up a gas container for my grill. I had a fun exchange with the service person who was very nice and as he was joking around with my wife and her dad, I was thinking to myself that at this moment there was no social distinction at all; just a natural exchange between friendly people.
It turns out that having money or superior education or upbringings too often creates artificial boundaries. Jessie O'Neill describes this problem from the perspective of the super wealthy in her book 'The Golden Ghetto'. Many wealthy are poor in spirit because they separate themselves from the rest of the society. So ironically, many rich suffer as much from their mistaken belief that they are in a class of their own, very much as some poor folks feel that something essential is missing in their lives.
I remember reading the consumer reports for a Greek restaurant in my neighborhood in which one reviewer said that the food was pretty good and she would definitely recommend it, that is, if you don't mind the lifeless expression of some of the wealthy stay-at-home moms that frequent the restaurant for lunch. It is true, I sometimes see over-dressed, super-trim women in their luxury cars and for some reason they don't look happy despite supposedly having everything their heart desires.
We are all equal, whether we have money or not, advanced degrees or not, whether we are attractive or plain, young or old. You would think an erected wall based on wealth can be torn down easily, but this is unfortunately not the case if you have been told from the day you were born that you are someone special. Unfortunately you may require a personal crisis before you find out that you aren't really any more special than the fellow next door. And according to Jessie O'Neill's research that is exactly what happens to many who are born into rich families.
It turns out that having money or superior education or upbringings too often creates artificial boundaries. Jessie O'Neill describes this problem from the perspective of the super wealthy in her book 'The Golden Ghetto'. Many wealthy are poor in spirit because they separate themselves from the rest of the society. So ironically, many rich suffer as much from their mistaken belief that they are in a class of their own, very much as some poor folks feel that something essential is missing in their lives.
I remember reading the consumer reports for a Greek restaurant in my neighborhood in which one reviewer said that the food was pretty good and she would definitely recommend it, that is, if you don't mind the lifeless expression of some of the wealthy stay-at-home moms that frequent the restaurant for lunch. It is true, I sometimes see over-dressed, super-trim women in their luxury cars and for some reason they don't look happy despite supposedly having everything their heart desires.
We are all equal, whether we have money or not, advanced degrees or not, whether we are attractive or plain, young or old. You would think an erected wall based on wealth can be torn down easily, but this is unfortunately not the case if you have been told from the day you were born that you are someone special. Unfortunately you may require a personal crisis before you find out that you aren't really any more special than the fellow next door. And according to Jessie O'Neill's research that is exactly what happens to many who are born into rich families.
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