A Perfect Storm

I remember a movie I saw a few years ago. I think it was titled, A Perfect Storm. It was about this fishing boat that went out to sea just as several contributing factors for a monster storm were coming together. The weather forecasters called it a “perfect storm” and it swallowed up this boat and its crew and wreaked havoc on the northeastern coast of the United States.

I feel like America is headed for “a perfect storm.” Every day the price of a barrel of oil reaches a new high. The price of gasoline is well on its way to $4.00 a gallon. The cost of food and other items are rising quickly. Confidence in the U.S. dollar is dropping. The fallout from the mortgage crises is still rippling across the investment banks of the world leaving more and more homeowners to face foreclosure everyday. How did so many things get this bad so fast?

For decades, cheap oil and gas have allowed Americans to live a wonderful life. We guzzled gas and oil like there was no tomorrow, no end to this resource. We were certain that the oil producing countries of this world would always be there for us. We became hooked, like an addict, on this dope that fueled our economy and our wasteful lifestyle. We could waste it. There was plenty more where that came from. It was cheap! We had no need to develop more fuel-efficient cars and trucks. We had no need to think about alternative fuels and different kinds of engines. We had no need to worry about the cost to the environment. Global warming was just a theory. No one saw the clouds of political unrest that would lead to hostility by those oil-producing nations. No one saw an arrogant war that made us one of the most hated countries in the world. Finally, no one saw the competition for this precious resource from China and India as their countries modernized. We were the biggest customer “junkie” on the block.

Americans talked a lot about our dependence on foreign oil, but did little to end it. In fact, we grew even more dependent as the discussion grew louder. Bio-fuels became the rallying cry. We will help solve our addiction for oil by growing our own fuel! Great idea! Our leaders jumped on the bandwagon. Soon there was a call to build more plants to turn even more corn into ethanol. Farmers rejoiced and the price of corn began rising. Forego the other crops and plant more corn! And they did to the exclusion of other crops. No one foresaw that farmers and ranchers would have to pay more to feed their livestock. The price of beef and milk began to rise. No one foresaw that the cost of his or her cornflakes and corn chips would also become more expensive. No one even thought about all the other grain needed to feed the rest of the world or that people might go hungry. Recently, the cost rose and the supply dropped for those other grains leading even American suppliers like Sam’s Club and Costco to resort to rationing. What the hell was that?

By the way, someone forgot to tell us that there is less “bang” per gallon of ethanol compared to a gallon of gasoline. Even though our MPG (miles per gallon) burning ethanol would be lower than gasoline, at least we grew it! We did not import it. Why invest money in updating old oil refineries to make them safer, less polluting and more efficient? Why build new oil refineries at all? Therefore, we did not. In fact, the oil companies began to realize that there was a big profit in limiting and controlling the supply of gasoline on the market (independent of the rise or fall of the cost of a barrel of oil). Did you ever wonder why it takes forever for the price of gasoline to drop at the pump when there is a drop in the price of oil and why the pump price rises immediately when the price of oil rises? I have heard it said that market speculation is now behind the skyrocketing cost of gas at the pump, not unlike the housing boom that recently went...bust.

Speaking of housing and mortgages, no one saw the problem of selling variable rate mortgages to families who could not afford them. When the rates invariably increased, the homeowner’s monthly mortgage payment quickly rose beyond their ability to pay. An explosion of homes across the country were quickly forced into foreclosure. Another problem: no one questioned that many of these families made little or no down payments on these sub-prime mortgages so they could just walk away leaving banks and lenders holding bad debt. No one saw the cost of this unregulated greed. Too many lenders were only interested in pushing paper and making their commissions. Let someone else worry about the consequences of all these bad loans. No one questioned the ratcheting values of these homes during the boom. There was money to be made from pushing value and churning real estate. As long as you could buy, sell, and move property the market was hot. No one saw the pin that burst the bubble.

So now, we watch the skies darken over our “little boat.” We see the waves rise and fall higher and deeper. The wind blows fiercely in our face. We are heading into our “perfect storm.” No food, no affordable fuel and no home may be left to give us a port in this coming storm. If ever there was a time for bold leadership, new ideas and sacrifice...this is that time. The party is over. There comes a time to pay for our greed, our lack of vision and our lack of caring. I pray that we survive our perfect storm.

FOOD for THOUGHT...

Gramps & the Big Sister

Some big news happened last week. My oldest daughter, Heather, gave birth to her second daughter making me a grandpa again. Ashlyn Grace Derr came into this world just after midnight on 4/15/08. Her arrival was met with much joy. Not only was I a grandpa, but Ashlyn’s older sister, Emma, was now a BIG SISTER. This was a much anticipated...promotion. It was a position of great responsibility, not to be taken lightly. Little sisters have much to learn, things that only a big sister can pass along. Emma was ready.

I don’t know where the years have gone. It seems not that long ago that I had this picture of Ashlyn’s mother burned into my memory. Heather’s tiny little hand reached up and grabbed the side of the warming tray after her birth. I had been in the delivery room and was among the first to welcome my daughter into this world. Her hand seemed too small to be human, but there it was and she has had a tight grip on life ever since.

Being here in San Antonio, I miss seeing my daughters and my grandchildren. Their lives are whirling by too fast. I thank God for the pictures my daughter sends me from time to time. Our get-togethers, although too few, have been precious. I wonder, though, if my joy at being a grandpa again even comes close to the joy of being a Big Sister in the Derr household right now.

FOOD for THOUGHT...

Ego and Being One

I have been reading and listening to a lot of New Age philosophy and thought over the last few years. I have explored many different sources. More recently, I have been listening to Eckhart Tolle, the author of several books: The Power of Now and A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose. Currently, he and Oprah Winfrey are doing an unprecedented, online, worldwide study of his second book. In his books, there is much discussion about human ego and awakening to who we really are. Some of it can get deep and I struggle at times, but I am slowly gaining an understanding of his message.

Two basic concepts are at odds with each other when it comes to understanding who we really are and why we are here. Spiritually there is a concept that we are all ONE, coming from the One Source, The Great Creator, Universal Consciousness...God. If you can get your mind around that one, move on to the other concept of ego. Ego is who we think we are, who we perceive ourselves to be. Our ego tells us that we are separate and unique from every other human being. We are who we are, who we see ourselves to be. Some egos see themselves as better than or inferior to others, but the overriding concept is that we are separate and not part of any whole.

If you think about it, our egos explain a lot about human behavior and history. If we all see ourselves as unconnected, unique beings, then what we do or do not do to each other is often without consequence, especially if our egos have convinced us that we are better than some other person or group of people. Our egos can tell us that some beings are not really human at all and that to kill or torture them is acceptable. That helps me to understand things like the Jewish Holocaust in World War II, the Killing Fields of Cambodia and even the Spanish Inquisition in which thousands of human beings were tortured and killed by other human beings.

Killing out of self-defense and killing out of a sense that we are somehow better than, more enlightened than, more patriotic than, more moral than, or simply more powerful than others is quite a leap. The acceptability of killing out of a sense of superiority is one of the biggest lies of the human ego. What we cannot see because of ego is that we are all connected. We are all one body of spiritual consciousness. Again, that is a big concept to accept, but stay with me.

Picture your body with its millions of individual cells. Groups of specialized cells make up different parts of our body. Your body has a head with eyes and ears and a brain. Your trunk has a heart and other organs. You have two arms and two legs. Somehow, you sense your body as a whole being, not just a bunch of individual cells loosely connected, independent from one another. If you stub your toe, your whole body feels the pain. If you cut your finger, your body bleeds.

Assuming we love and respect our bodies, would we consider chopping off our fingers, our arms or our head? How could one part of our body feel superior, more valuable or more expendable than other parts of the body as a whole? Every part, every cell is important to the health, function and well-being of the body. The death of any cell diminishes the whole body.

Are we any more valuable than, more important than, less expendable than other human beings?

FOOD for THOUGHT...