Who Knows What Evil Lurks In The Heart Of Man

Before I launch into serious matters, here's a tip for healthy living because I care about your well-being. Don't keep a gigantic-sized bag of Nestle's semi-sweet chocolate chips in your pantry. I'm just saying, because some people might eat them by the handful. And the handful and the handful. What kind of a sicko eats chocolate chips as a snack? None of us, I'm sure. I got a depressing email this morning telling me that a woman that I have worked with for a long time is dying. A year ago she was working with me to learn what I do, and because she is a decade my junior, I had high hopes that she would be my replacement. She went on vacation last December and never came back. When I finally found out where she was, I learned that she was back in treatment for her cancer. We have known that she has battled cancer for the last 5 years, but for a while it seemed that she had it licked, until last year, when it returned, evidently for good this time. She is in hospice care, so the outlook is bleak. This is so heartbreaking. In other news, I read today that Michael Richards, of Seinfeld fame, and racist outburst infamy, is now explaining why he claimed to be Jewish in his defense of anti-Semitic remarks attributed to him. It turns out that he isn't actually Jewish by either birth or conversion, but, and I'm not making this up, feels Jewish. Well, I feel pretty, oh so pretty, I feel pretty and witty and wise. Don't make me pretty or witty or wise, though. I've been thinking a lot about the Richard's incident since it happened. You never want to be in the position of denying that you are a racist, because the accusation is ugly and it is impossible to deny credibly. I guess to a certain extent, like it or not, we are all racists in one way or another, be we red or yellow, black or white as the old children's hymn goes. Decent people of all races and ethnicity, while aware of our racial and ethnic differences, try hard to make them unimportant in our person-to-person relationships by our word and deed. One-on-one we are pretty good at it. Less so on a societal level. Our habit of sterotyping makes us all suspect until we prove ourselves otherwise. We waste a lot of time and energy proving that these sterotypes are wrong. The history of race relations in this country has left us all with some uncomfortable baggage to unpack. Situations like Richard's outburst are a stark reminder of the darker side of our nature. At the end of the day, I think Mr. Richards has more of an anger problem than a racist problem. Often when we get angry, we lash out in ways intended to create maximum hurt, at least I do, and I assume I'm not alone. Its just most of us know where the uncrossable line is. He evidently doesn't. I hope that makes some sense, but its a white guys opinion, so I may have a distorted perspective. Things in this blog represented to be fact, may or may not actually be true. The writer is frequently wrong, sometimes just full of it, but always judgemental and cranky Tag: Daily Life Personal Finance Humor