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Sunday, June 23, 2019

Money is NOT the Main Goal! Podcast on Paleojays smoothie cafe




I have never focussed on making money as my primary goal.  Never.

It’s not that I didn’t need money; of course, I acknowledge that we all do!  And, like all of you, I usually wish I had just a little more…  But, when I am so distracted, I try to see the big, Paleo picture if you will:  
‘If I make a pile of money, after working many, many hours, sacrificing my home life, my relationships with my child and my grandchildren- would that make me any happier at all?’

This question always makes me see the big picture clearly.  Family, or TRIBE of family and friends- this always trumps money.  ALWAYS!  Time spent with your tribe, nurturing and simply bonding with them, is really all we have.  Of course, we need to make a living, but we don’t need to sacrifice our present for a nebulous future of riches.  

Most of the time, it doesn’t even work out that way!  Ignoring your tribe usually results in really bad outcomes, like divorce, children resentful and rebelling, and us dying early from ignoring true riches (like our health and the health and relationships between us and the many members of our tribal family).  

I’m now 67, and consider myself to be abundantly healthy and happy!  I’m just middle class, but enhanced my material status by moving and remaining in a rural area, where land and housing costs are quite low by national standards.  I had to learn to do many physical tasks by myself, since hiring them done is expensive, even here.
I found out that I actually enjoy things like cutting firewood and trees down, maintaining my chain saw and tractor and other machines is grounding and keeps me down to earth.  And while I am tending my land, whether garden or lawn, paths through my woods, or working on a stubborn piece of machinery- occasionally, I get a feeling, a revelation perhaps: Wait- I think I am, right now, completely happy and satisfied.  

I cut through the base of a backwards leaning, giant maple tree, then hear a slight ‘crack’.  I loop my chain around the trunk, and step back to my tractor.  I look back as I rev the engine and move slowly away- and that huge tree falls with a whump exactly where I wanted it to!  At that moment, all is right with the world.

Would I feel the same if my tiny suburban yard was immaculate, and my rosebushes, trimmed by a lawn care company, were perfect?  And my expensive sports car was shining in the driveway, on the shiny blacktop, as the lawn care mower went quickly across my small yard, which was perfectly weed free, since they had poured glyphosate liberally over it- would I be pleased that now, with no effort on my part, my grandchildren could scamper over that small lawn with no effort on my part at all?  

Old 67 year aged PaleoJay walks barefoot across his yard, not lawn.  It is green, except for the various dandelion, or creeping charlie.  Plantains are in abundance in certain areas, since he never uses any herbicides, or insecticides.  His   1962 Ford F100 sits in his driveway, shining slightly, which makes him smile.  He thinks of the grandchildren coming over for the weekend, and grins.  It will be tiring, chasing a couple of little toddlers all over the yard and garden and farmhouse:  but he wouldn’t trade it for millions!

If I owned that tiny suburban yard outside of a big city, and had maybe a million or so in the bank- would I be happier?  Would I smile if my grandkids ran barefoot over my poisoned lawn?  Or would I be too busy to even notice, since I had to check online for my investments, and my high powered executive job’s demands?  And would I still even be married at all?

Family and Tribe trumps job, salary, and prestige.  Place, where you live, is far more important than income and possessions.  And health beats wealth!  
EVERY TIME!!

So go thou and do likewise.  Make money, but for a real purpose, not just as if it is a big game.  Money is good if used to buy tools you need, real foods that fulfill the health needs of your tribe, and things like tractors and old trucks.  
If money is used for exotic vacations to impress Facebook friends, fancy cars, stupid one-trick ponies like zero turn mowers, and expensive restaurant meals- that is wasted money, buying disappearing mirages of smoke and mirrors.

It really doesn’t matter how much you save and accumulate, how much you get!  What matters is your life, how you lived it, what you did with it, how much you shared- both money and time and effort both- and the health, both of mind and body, of those you nurtured and should have been responsible towards.  

YOUR TRIBE.