Little or Much

​I read a quote by a guy I had never heard of, and I reckon I might never hear of again. But part of what he said made an impression on me. It was someone called Alexander Maclaren and he said in part, “‘…If a man is admitted into the bullion vault of a bank and told to help himself, and comes out with one cent, whose fault is it that he is poor?”

Why I like that is it has helped me see that really, for many things, I can have as much or as little of something as I want.

The reason I reckon that matters is if something is available that I would like, I think I need to go for it. What I am seeing firsthand at the moment is something may not always be available.

The reason I say that is I look at petrol prices. They have skyrocketed. I remember years ago being miffed I had to pay $1 a litre for petrol in some out of the way place. Now it is around $2 a litre. Right now it is possible to pay that amount. But one day it may not be. Combine that with power costs and it is getting harder to live.

So it seems to me so much of what I want is an “enjoy it while I can” thing. I do not know how long I can have it. I heard someone on tv the other day talking about rising home loans. They said the reality is there is very little we actually have control over. That to me is true. I did not see the tsunami coming that claimed a couple of hundred thousand lives. Or the pandemic or the floods. Or the war in Ukraine. It seems to me what I hear now is a distant thunder, but I know the storm is coming closer, as already I see its effects around me.

What that means to me is that I need to grab a hold of what I want (not in a selfish “blow you Jack” kind of way) while I can. I am fond of saying the way someone is, is not necessarily the way they will always be.

At the moment I have everything I need to go play table tennis or visit mates or get things for the yard, but I would be being less than honest with myself if I assumed the way it is now is the way it is always going to be. I reckon it is right for me that I live as though it will be, but it is important to me that I do not assume it always will be.

I enjoy my life. Last night we had a get together and people brought stuff to eat. It was beautiful. At the end they went home to their shelters, and we went into ours. I will take as much of that as I can get.