When I was in kindergarten I did a painting that I was really proud of.
It won a prize.
But I didn't get my painting back.



When I was a little older I did a painting at home that my father really liked.
He took it and kept it.



Lesson?

If you do something good it will be taken away from you.

I don't want "hint of garlic" mashed potatoes.

I want mashed potatoes.

Jeez.

I have such contempt for the fashion industry.


Like so many others its main purpose is to convince people to buy more and new and discard the old.


What is wrong with wearing clothes out?
Wouldn't that be better for the environment?


Why should it be considered some horrible faux pas to wear last year's fashion.
(Why is there even such a thing as "last year's fashion"?)


Why can't I find a colour of sweater to match the panst/shirt I bought last year?


With all the "choice" that the fashion industry claims they offer why is it so hard, or even impossible, for me to find the simple classic clothing that I like?


What the hell real difference can it possibly make what width your tie is?
If fashion really is about expressing yourself then having people wear many different widths of tie should be a desirable thing.


The sad thing is that trying to be "in" and "fashionable" is one of the biggest acts of conformity that one can commit.

Personal space.

How close to other humans you are comfortable being.


I have lived in downtown Toronto for more than forty years but lately I have often felt very bothered with how close to me other people stand and walk.

My guess is that part of this is just that the city is so much more crowded in recent years that there just isn't enough space for people to stay farther away.

Also, in a city full of people from different cultures around the planet many of them come from places where the boundaries of personal space are smaller.

And maybe just being an old person makes me less tolerant of others.


I'm not saying that anyone is "wrong".

I'm just observing one way that the world has changed.
And that it is a way that leaves me even less comfortable functioning in it.

Everyone should have money available to them,  in the own name,  that no one else can touch.



Many see money in terms of things it can buy for them.




I see it as freedom.

To have enough money that you don't need to rely on anyone else for support,  or need to work,  is to me freedom.  

No matter what your standard of living.




I wish I had learned this sooner than I did.

But I did learn it.

And in time.

I suppose every family or group has at least one.


The sort of person who can't rest if someone has something they don't.

Who has to somehow get part (or most or all) of what someone else has.

Who will manipulate and scheme and plan and plot and whine and hint until they get their share.

Who has this sense of entitlement to what others have achieved or earned.

For whom a fair share or an equal part is never enough.



Who will never rest until they get what they "deserve".

Who totally and utterly believe they are entitled to whatever it is.



Who will happily see their target left with just enough.
Or even not enough.


And who often,

after they get "it",

will just waste it.

When I was downsizing my 2000 plus book collection one thing that helped me part with them was making a list.

Similar to photographing items before removing them from your life.

(Photographing each book is a possibility but for me was not necessary.)