No, I'm not talking about Budweiser.
I am talking about M.O.N.E.Y.
The biggie. I have been sitting on this one for a while. I knew that I would be writing about it sooner or later. My trip to Vegas has definitely inspired me to talk about it now.
First of all, I have to say that Vegas is incredible. I'm talking about the Vegas Strip where you will see so many amazing things all in a relatively small area of town. I mean the architecture, the lights, the sights, the fountains, the imitations, the crazies, the attractions…we are talking sensory overload. I walked around a few of the hotel/casinos yesterday and was just blown away.
If you haven't seen it, you should. I don't think there is anything like it in the world.
And the crazy thing is, I have barely scratched the surface. I haven't even seen that much yet. And the landscape surrounding Vegas is beautiful. The mountains and the desert-sometimes it looks almost purple.
However, the area around the strip is commercial, suburban hell. Just tons of fast food places, malls, strip malls, other casinos, and traffic. And it seems like it stretches forever.
And the people here seem miserable. Aggressive drivers, sad-looking immigrants, bitchy customers. Of course, this area has been hit hard by the economic crisis, so I guess they have a reason to be a bit foul.
It strikes me that money is the single most influential factor of life in the modern world. It's fear's right-hand man. If I am wrong, tell me what is bigger? Love and compassion aren't more important in this world. At least not at this moment in time. No, fear is our ruler, dictator, king, and queen.
Money trumps love and compassion in this world in a heartbeat. If it weren't so, we wouldn't have wars and famines. Parents wouldn't leave their children for something as ridiculous as a job. We wouldn't have sold out our country so that all of the work that we used to do here is now done in Asia.
I am not telling you anything that you don't already know. Money's power to corrupt is endless. Just look at the boss/employee relationship. Now, I have been blessed with nothing but good bosses all my life, but I have seen the sickening relationship that fear and money bring into this scenario. Have you ever been an employee and were forced to be nice to an awful person because you were scared to lose your job. Have you ever been a boss and had people act phony towards you because they want to ensure that they keep a job? What about prostitutes?
I could go on and on. But one last example is from my own situation. I left my partner, but I would dare to guess that it wouldn't have had to be that way had money not been an issue. We could have simply decided to travel around together if money was not such an influential factor. In fact, the only negative letter I received about my decision to do what I did was all about money. And money has been the single biggest question on people's minds when they consider what I am out here doing. "What are you going to do for money?" "What happens when your money runs out?"
Now, I would be lying if I were to tell you that money wasn't on my mind.
Yes, my money will run out, but everyday it becomes less and less a matter of concern. And today I experienced a situation that made me realize how sickening money is and how I know that I am doing the right thing. Because I will never again be a slave to money. And isn't that what we all are? Would you be living the same life that you live now if money was not a factor? It's the same question if I replaced the word 'money' for the word 'fear.' Aren't they synonyms?
Anyway, I was on my way driving from Vegas to the Grand Canyon. It's a pretty long drive about 250-275 miles each way. I stopped in a little town called Kingman, AZ for gas. While I was there a guy came up to me and said that it looked like something was wrong with my tire. And, as luck would have it, he was a tire guy and his shop was right next door. Now, I am no expert on cars or tires, but I was immediately suspicious. Seemed a little too convenient. But, I told him it was a rental car and sure, he could put it up on the rack and check it out. He had the car lifted up and sure enough, I could definitely see a tearing on the inside of the front tire. He also noticed something wrong with one of the back tires as well, but this was less obvious to me than it was to him.
To make a long story less long, he called the rental place and said that I had problems with 2 tires and that he would be glad to replace them. The rental car place said that I could pay for the 2 new tires and they would reimburse me. Well, I wasn't interested. I told the guy to take the car off the rack and I will drive the car back and get a replacement. Meanwhile, another unsuspecting gas customer was being waved over from the pump to the tire store. Yeah, it was a racket. And the guy working with me was gross. Just a slimy, sickeningly sweet persona that I just wanted to get away from as soon as I could.
So, I took the car back and got a nicer one. No big deal. But the whole thing just left a bad taste in my mouth. The nasty taste of watching fear devour people's lives. The tire guy was probably just a nice, normal guy trying to make a living. And fear and money tainted him and has him a slave to a tire racket who gets dopes like me to buy tires on their way out to see one of nature's most beautiful creations. And going back to the car rental place and watching the employees throw their lives down the drain to work in a soul-sucking place like Vegas. The place was crawling with tourists looking to get their cars and they were understaffed. They spend most of their day doing a mindless job for unappreciative people. It's hard to describe how sick this makes me. How sick this whole town makes me to see people, all amazing in their own special way, work in a soul-starved place because money runs our lives.
So yeah, fuck money. Fuck it's all-encompassing, soul-drying, stomach-twisting putridness. If I can't make money doing something that I am absolutely passionate about, then I guess I don't make money. Tell me a better way? What is the answer? The answer is, for me, that if the universe is a benevolent place, like I know it to be, I will be perfectly fine.
So for those of you who are wondering what am I going to do for money? The question better asked is what won't I do for money? I won't starve my soul and be a slave to it anymore. I will love this beautiful world and give my gratitude and appreciation for everything that it is.
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