The Art of NOT making a decision

in other words..... I really did follow my own advice. I shut the gremlins in my head down and went to work. At the very moment I went to talk to the person i needed to about 'the job', I decided that I wanted to do it. I then added that I would be willing to rearrange my schedule to accomodate 4 days a week, that I would expect a raise in pay (more responsibility, blah blah) and that I could not train any new employee they hired (no time, blah blah).

all was unbridled glee. yahoo.........yippee..... hooray

Human Resources called me. Yes, this is a 'real' corporation (ugh).... and we 'discussed'. Basically the 'discussing' was them wanting to know how much I wanted. For a 'real' corporation they are incredibly small in the realm of other 'real' corporations. It is a group of Urologists that have sewn up the market in our county. (More on 'our county' later).

I asked them to remember that I was a part-time employee, no paid vacation, no benefits etc. and to think about this and that I would look forward to their actual proposal and salary information.

Another phone call from HR. "We have to watch what we pay because of the 'other' employees". They came back with an increase of $.50!!!!!!!!!!!! To which I fell off my chair, started laughing and said "I will get back to you".

Other than writing a letter to HR explaining my surprise and disappointment and advising that 'other' employees wouldnt know what I made, that 'other' employees were NOT part-time and that 'other' employees received paid vacations and paid benefits, I asked "So... when will we be having my current review?" (so you can give me a $.50 increase?!?!" and I wont have to take on the new position).

SO... little did I know that I wanted to take the position until I said it, and little did I know that I wouldn't want the position until I heard what type of salary increase there would be.

Nuff said about worring about stuff before it happens.

I have a brain that needs to create. It also needs the other stuff too.... the organizing, the other type of 'work' and I switch back and forth pretty easily. So for now, things shall remain the same and we shall see what becomes of it......

Money Made from Money

Money made from money.... ( a rambling....)

I recently watched a film called "Surfwise" about the Paskowitz family. It is the story of a father who graduated Stanford and became and MD and at some point, made a conscious decision to change the way his life was going. He married (again) and he and his wife raised 9 children in a camper and then founded a school of surfing.

The film is a documentary and was released this year. I enjoyed it. The rebel part of me nodded in agreement thru a good portion of the fathers discussion of his life and the change he made. This 84 year old still surfs every morning and still stands by and practices the beliefs he adopted when he decided to change his life. The movie moves forward and interviews the 9 adult children. About mid-film you start hearing the discontent, the 'i need to blame someone for the way my life is' of most of these adult children. During this portion of the film I kept thinking, "ive raised my two children, now 26 and 19 and I heard/hear that from them too, and funny, I remember going thru that period myself as i grew into adulthood". By the end of the film the family is rejoined, and there is no blame, just a wonderful sense of family, a sense of something very special because of the way they were raised and how they were taught and each adult child seems happy with his/her life choices. A good film, that left me feeling good.

One of the things that Doc Paskowitz talked of in the film was the idea of 'not making money from money'. This was one of the things that he had decided he would not do. The thought of "not making money from money' has rattled around in my head since I saw the film. What does it mean? What does it mean to me? Is it a feasible way to live? How closely could I get to following that precept?

The idea of making money from money, most especially in this country, is to become a usurer. What occurs here in this country, with banks, credit card companies and most large corporations is nothing short of usury (definition: usury n. , pl. -ries . The practice of lending money and charging the borrower interest, especially at an exorbitant or illegally high rate. ) The other name for what occurs is 'loan sharking'.... which usually connotes some sense of gangsters/mafia. We, as a nation have become gangsters in the handling of our business affairs....(as well as in alot of our other dealings with people & countries).

After doing a google search on the phrase "not making money from money", I came across references to this throughout written history. The Quran, the Talmud and the Torah all have restrictions on usury. I found this article on "Principles of Islamic Banking" to be a good read. http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/economics/nbank1.html

I particularly like this principle written about in the article: "Money is only a medium of exchange, a way of defining the value of a thing; it has no value in itself, and therefore should not be allowed to give rise to more money, via fixed interest payments, simply by being put in a bank or lent to someone else. The human effort, initiative, and risk involved in a productive venture are more important than the money used to finance it." We sure are a long way from this.

I am not wealthy. I am better off then quite a few and nowhere near as wealthy as others. Somewhere along the line I became what use to be called middle-class and which is now called upper lower class. I dont have huge savings accounts or stocks and bonds and I dont have a nest egg other than my home, to fall back on. I would gladly throw everything away in order to be happy and content. I find that having lots of things eventually winds up being an anchor that will sink me.

i'd like to think that I might be capable of living by a principle like "do not make money from money" and be content.