Friday, November 22, 2013

With Lots of Cream and Sugar

Yes, that is the way I take it.  I like my coffee strong but I also buffer that with lots of cream and a good teaspoon of sugar.  What you drink in the morning pretty much tells me who you are.  You like it hot and black, then you face life as it comes and you handle it!  You like your coffee warm and weak, then you face life with hesitation and regret and wish the morning had not come so fast.  You don't drink coffee at all but would rather have an ice cold Pepsi in the morning?  Then you are a rule breaker and do not have much patience for those who make the rules. You need the hair of the dog in the morning, then life has you by the tail and until you let go you are in for a bumpy ride.  Me, I can take life as it comes, but want it frosted and creamy and hot.  (Pop psychology?  Better than Stossel's report...see below.)

There are those of us who see poor people working through life as best they can under the crazy circumstances.  There are others of us who think poor people make their own problems and deserve the circumstances they are in from not dealing with those problems as they should have.  This in a nutshell is how I see the battle over health care.  Some people think that only the social network of help can make sure someone gets the healthcare they need whether they created the problem though drug use or drinking or over eating or over working or not being able to deal with fighting in an ugly war.  Other people think that life is a crap shoot and if you don't keep your eyes open and your hand firmly on "the tiller, the wheel, the gun"...whatever and your shoulder to the grindstone you are not going to make it through the week much less the rest of your life.  They rely on a few good friends and that is that, or they rely on the  church being able to sort all this out.

Of course, as you know, I think it is far more complicated than that and the truth is all over the place.  There are the users and abusers who we have to keep from sucking us dry and we have to avoid being an enabler.  There are the unlucky whom we must help, because they can survive and make contributions of their own.  But since they do not all wear signs, we will make mistakes.  And much of this is perception.  Do we perceive that the majority that are in need are lazy and purposely greedy or do we see them as unlucky, not too smart, and fearful?  John Stossel (one of those talking heads on faux news who tries to present the image of a journalist, but never bothers to ask the ask who, what, where, when and why questions) demonstrated that anyone can panhandle (as he did again in a bearded disguise), and thus claimed that those who give to the homeless are dupes.  The demo only proved to me that most people are good-hearted and most conservative journalists find it too much work to research their subject matter in depth.

Hubby talked to our investment adviser yesterday since the market is going crazy and hubby is reaching that age where he is required by law to withdraw a certain percentage of his investments annually.  (A rule that allows the taxman to get his share sooner rather than later.)  They talked about the market (as unpredictable as ever) and our adviser said something that brought me up short.  He was speaking from the millionaires point of U. S. view as I am sure he makes and has a lot of money.  He said that the financial folks see the demographics as a disappearing middle class, with the separation  forming that will break out to the top 15% and then everyone else.  It would be nice to blame this on conservative or liberal politics, but it started back in the 1980's. I blame it on the rich being able to make the rules.

This will not impact me much, because I am not 20 or 30 or 40 or 10!  It will impact those I love who come after me.  There will be the vast wilderness surrounding gated communities.  Will it be a world like The Hunger Games...but without the games or will it be more chaotic than that?  Will cream and sugar be able to null the bitter taste in one's mouth as they look out their window in the morning?

(On the other hand it appears that health care costs are going down!)

15 comments:

  1. I like mine
    hot and black :)
    No cream and no sugar
    then I could not taste the coffee.
    Investments - one mistake I made
    when married - check and everything else (when I handled most of business) was put in husbands name and he has now lost.
    I am fortunate, nothing I want, need, eat healthy and simply, roof over my head, old car and truck, dream came true of returning to my homeplace and a blessing of 4 wonderful children and 5 grandchildren. Now if I can just attend first granddaughters wedding in the Spring and stay upright :)

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  2. I drink one cup of coffee with creamer in the morning. I'm generally an optimist and love mornings.

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  3. Black as the swamp mud and hot as the bayou in summer. No sweetening, i love the seductive, bitter taste.

    As is typical, the problems are bigger than any one explanation can cover.

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  4. I like my coffee strong with cream no sugar. Two cups please. I think of myself as a somewhat anxious optimist but a pragmatic problem solver, the anxiety has shown up recently yet I sleep soundly at night, maybe its asthma meds :-0

    I worked in the job lab at a social services agency. I saw far too many people over 40 who had been laid off and couldn't find a job again in spite of good work histories and some education. They lost their medical coverage, and one major illness can wipe out all the cushion they had. The just average clients, reliable but not remarkable are worse off as they never made enough to really put anything much aside and they skid off into homelessness swiftly. All these people would have taken any job they could, but there just haven't been any jobs. Our state, Washington, just announced in this so-called recovery that we have lost another 98,000 jobs this year. I saw far more deserving people than not in my time at that job.

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  5. Black, hot and strong for me - although I can drink it any color and any degree of heat or iced. Please don't give me sugar, though. I'm sweet enough.

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  6. Wow. That was some cup of coffee, started at the beginning of your essay, and there at the end with a whole lot of political philosophy in the middle.
    This is brilliant!
    My coffee? Not for breakfast. Decaf with 1/3 milk, reheated in the microwave, with chocolate, after lunch and in the evening. Coffee is a dessert thing for me. I get going in the morning with a few oz of OJ.

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  7. A bit of milk in my coffee, please. But now you've got me wondering about a friend who often takes her morning coffee with a shot of Bailey's.

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  8. Hot and black. This happened today: It is bitter cold here in Seattle and there are folks on the street. A community literacy group was out soliciting funds near Costco. I passed them by. Across the street a homeless guy asked me for food money. I bought him a sandwich and gave him $2.00. I watched this obviosly grateful and hungry guy eat the sandwich. He said "Thank you" then he put one dollar in his pocket and gave the other dollar to the fundraisers. I am sure there are a thousand ways to look at this, but my heart saw dignity.

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  9. A pot of strong black coffee in the morning. Sometimes a large cup of coffee with french vanilla cream and vodka in the late afternoon:)

    Last night I could not remember how Ron taught me to make a hot toddy with rum. He quit drinking in 1997 but he still made a heck of a bartender.

    Wait,what were we talking about?

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  10. Coffee in the morning, two cups, soy creamer, no sugar. Stay out of my way until then.
    Yeah, anyone probably could put on a fake beard and panhandle for a day. Not knowing what or if you will eat that day, scrounging in a dumpster, sleeping on the ground with frost covering your head, craving some drug so much you give up everything else, strange voices screaming at you inside your head--would most people take that on on a long term basis?

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  11. I do know that all the families before me owned large homes and hired staff. Mother had all those things thanks to her father. I have a comfy condo thanks to mother mislaying a hundred thousand and the state finding it. I never would have been able to own my own home without parental finances. I can't see my kids owning their own homes at all. Yes, it's a downward spiral.

    I'm a giant mug of half decalf and sugar. :)

    Answers? LOL Ah, think of the details I'm not sharing.

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  12. Dare I say I like a cup of Lady Grey tea first thing - no milk, no sugar....... then a concoction of tablets, and eventually a cup of coffee. Greetings from Dalamory www.freda.org.uk

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  13. Hot and black with a touch of sugar. I drink about two pots of french press a day.
    Sleep just fine, as long as I don't watch delusional lib media, or most media for that matter.

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  14. A nespresso machine espresso with foamed milk. Decaf for the rest of the day.
    Our children would not own homes if not for our help.

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  15. Much grey, but I like my tea hot and black with nothing added. I think we started down a wrong path with Reagan and are still paying that price.

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