Skip to main content

The real world~


I'm not sure exactly what the "real world" is anymore.

This morning I emailed a friend to say I was going to get out of the "real world" for a few hours and wander around some cranberry bogs with my camera. I amended my message to say that maybe I was, in fact, actually heading into the real world.

What's real? What matters? Is what matters real?

Philosophy aside, who knows, and maybe who cares? I'm not sure I do. But I've steeped in politics until I'm purple. I'm so tired of it all. It's a game I'm being forced to watch and play.

And as for the current financial meltdown . . . it pays to have so little to lose. I'm not happy about the whole thing, but my life will continue pretty much unscathed, maybe a bit pinchier in the penny department.

Gates held the top spot-- richest man in the world-- for 15 years, according to Forbes magazine. And now he doesn't.

I wonder if he feels any pain from losing his perch to Warren Buffet. Is Buffet gloating? I have not a clue. To me, rich is rich. What difference is there between the first or 31st spot? It's still more money than I could spend in a lifetime. A billion lifetimes.

There is a book I used to read my students when I taught math: How Much is a Million? by David M. Schwartz. My kids loved the book and so did I. Such a huge concept as a million needs a children's picture book to make it assessable to adults.

"If a million children climbed on each other's shoulders, they would reach higher into the sky than airplanes can fly; if a billion of them made a human tower, it would reach past the moon."

Can you imagine?

Then there's this I stumbled upon somewhere and saved to share with my classes.

A million seconds is 12 days.

A billion seconds is 31 years.

A trillion seconds is 31,688 years.

Our country has not existed for a trillion seconds. 
Western civilization has not been around a trillion seconds. 
One trillion seconds ago – 31,688 years – Neanderthals stalked the plains of Europe.


So . . . the real world? I think the real world differs depending on who we are. The real world for me exists of things I can touch and see and hold in my hand-- or more importantly, hold in my heart.

I have a billion of nothing. But I feel rich. I am rich.

Bill and Warren might not understand, but I hope, for their sakes, they do.
~~~~~
The man who has won millions at the cost of his conscience is a failure.~BC Forbes

Comments

Carter said…
You're real--very.

I'll bet nobody but New Englanders knows what those red things are.
RiverPoet said…
I'm glad you got out into the real world for awhile today. I've been pretty steeped in the real world today, too, to the point that I yelled at the dogs for .... well, for being dogs this morning. I'm tired, a little stressed out, and a whole lot ready for my hubby to come home.

As for politics, I've had it up to here, you know? I'm so ready for the election to be over, and I hope Obama wins. We need someone with a level head to take it from here. What a mess he'll inherit.

Peace - D
Wanda said…
Oh Ruth, without being a "Prophetess".... how DO you read ones mind.

I was so thinking along these terms last night as I pondered this national situation.

I too have tire of it all, and will be glad when it is over.

As the Apostle Peter said... Silver and Gold have I none, but what I have is so much more.

"things I can touch and see and hold in my hand".

I just love how you say things Ruth..you touch my soul.

LOL:Wanda
Leslie: said…
Now that you have the time to ponder, you're coming up with some great philosophical questions. Lots to think about here.
Pauline said…
Now I have a new one for my granddaughter's phone ritual - I love you as much as all the cranberries in New England!
Michelle said…
I second that thought. I go through phases in which CNN is on 24/7. At the point when I would like to dip my head in a cranberry bog and never come up, I realize I need to turn the news OFF! What you don't know can't hurt you . . .right?!?
Ruth L.~ said…
Let me just put it this way . . . the world I live in is real enough to me . . . real in the way I want it to be. I can be a bit of an ostrich, but I do peek out now and then.
Barbara said…
That was one of my son's favorite books. He was the kid who liked to talk about infinity when he was 4 years old.

Love the cranberry shots!
Ruth L.~ said…
Barbara, I had a child like that. Infinity is a powerful concept that I can't quite wrap my mind around. How much more so for a kid.

Popular posts from this blog

For Alice~ She's home!!!!!!!

What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson Sometimes it's all about knowing that loved ones and friends stand behind you, knowing that support is there on the down days, the worry days, the days when you feel off-center, out of sync, bedraggled emotionally, and in pain, but knowing all the while that you're not alone. You're not alone... Alice is an online friend--she lives in Hawaii-- who belongs to the writer's workshop that I do. We've only "met" online, but those who have online friendships know that they can be just as strong as those in-person relationships. Alice was hit by a car while walking, and is in the rehab phase of things. She's working to regain mobility after a broken pelvis, a broken arm, and a broken nose. It's scary to realize how, in the blink of an eye, life can lurch and our plans for a time are displaced by survival and healing. We...

Killing time~

I'd woken feeling stuffy headed, slightly allergy-ish, puffy-eyed, and a tad grumpy. Lots to do, little time in which to do it, school issues keeping me in a state of angst, I considered not going to David's game. But it was Saturday, the game fairly close to home-- Salem State College-- an hour or so north through Boston to the town of Salem, famous for the 1692 witch trials that saw 19 suspected witches, many of them social outcasts, hang on Gallows Hill. A change of pace was what I needed whether I wanted it or not, so I went. I squeezed in a walk around the block that enclosed Salem State's O'Keefe Center while waiting for the game to begin. Just to kill time. I get so few chances to do that. Others walking, too, passed with no eye contact, no greetings, just sharing the same planet. Two were coming toward me. Still unfocused in the distance . . . one was tall, the other short . . . two men . . . loose clothing . . . like army clothes, camouflage . . . beard and lon...

Missing Becky~

Becky~ August 19, 1991 to April 26, 2010 She was so loved, this gentle pet of mine.  And how she loved us back. I've been alone in my house before, of course. Those days when my husband took the kids out for the day, being able to vacuum without a baby in one arm and a toddler, riding the vacuum cleaner like it was a bronco, was solitary pleasure. Later there were quiet days as the kids were at camp and my husband at work. And then came the bittersweet aloneness when kids left home for college and a life apart. Still, I'd always liked being alone, knowing it was short lived. This morning, after my husband pulled out of the driveway with a day full of plans,  I stood in the living room feeling alone in a way I never had before.  An unfamiliar emptiness and silence surrounded me. Yesterday we put our 18-year-old cat, Becky, to sleep. The decision to do so was surprisingly easy. The vet had told us Becky would let us know when it was time, and somehow she did. But ...