Ramen Noodles and Occupy Wall Street

Remember Occupy Wall Street?  That group of capitalist-hating hippies that thought they’d be allowed to take down the system by camping next to it.  Those smelly, intimidating trespassers resembled a ten-year-old’s club rather than a serious group of people trying to affect change. 

The problem with them isn't their message that the rich are too rich.  The rich are too rich.  There are people who own more than they’ll ever need.  They are destructively rich.  They are Kardashian rich.  That’s my new word for ostentatious, arrogance, and tacky with a little fear of contraction aftertaste:  Kardashian.  

They’re too rich.  Dad has a plane company so the family gets a television show that has been going on forever and has never had any reality in it.

Too much money has been destructive to so many.  Country clubs have turned into yacht clubs, have turned into living in a building you own club.  Silver has turned into gold, into platinum.  Rubies were traded in on diamonds and now diamonds are so passay that they’re becoming bigger and bigger and now they’re coming in different colors.  The well-adjusted super-rich is the one with a good PR team.

The problem with the message is that it went to the wrong people.  The message was some people have too much money and we should take it from them.  The message should have been some people have too much money and they should try giving some of it away. 

Now wait one second you think you’re free.  You say I've never owned a building and I've never checked my bank to see if I could afford a trip to space.  You think you’re off the hook because you didn't have to build a bigger garage for your huge collection of cars.  Think again.

You semi-rich person, you may be too rich.  You may have too much stuff.  You may have eaten Spaghettios twice last week and still have been too rich.  Your paycheck may want to argue but I’ll win because I’m a human and can talk and so the pay check won’t be able to argue.

You may be late paying the power man.  You may be late paying the water bill.  You may be just on the verge and yet you, I, we all might have too much stuff and be too rich.  I’m not talking about how we’re the first world and our poorest people are richer than 95% of the rest of the world give or take a percent.  I’m talking about the possibility that you may be living a satisfied life.

Ecclesiasticus 18:30-19:3

³⁰ Do not be governed by your passions, restrain your desires.

³¹ If you allow yourself to satisfy your desires, this will make you the laughing-stock of your enemies.

³² Do not indulge in luxurious living; do not get involved in such society.

³³ Do not beggar yourself by banqueting on credit when there is nothing in your pocket.

19¹ A drunken workman will never grow rich, and one who makes light of small matters will gradually sink.

² Wine and women corrupt intelligent men, the customer of whores loses all sense of shame.

³ Grubs and worms will have him as their legacy, and the man who knows no shame will lose his life.

This is how Ramen noodles and a can of veggies and maybe a little bit of spam all mixed together can be too much.  He’s right, this Jesus, that opulence has a great psychological price that has to be paid.  He doesn’t seem to go far enough though.  It is the fulfillment of desires that makes you weak.  You got a special place you go to in the park every Thursday and eat a homemade bologna sandwich?  Take a few weeks off.  Do you let yourself get whatever you want at the dollar store thinking that here is where you can splurge?  Go in with a hard limit on four things, or three, or one.  Do you watch soaps and thinks it’s your guilty pleasure but it’s okay because you’re on the treadmill while you watch?  Take a week off.  Read a little on the treadmill.  Are you addicted to the treadmill?  Take a week off. 

Whatever you’re addicted to, take a week off.  It is your desires that trap you and ensnare you.  It is your routine that makes you less free.

In the interest of full disclosure, this one’s tough for me.  I like a lot of little habits.  And I love cheap stuff.  I like getting my money’s worth.  I like watching too much TV.  I think I earn a break from life after working a couple of 14-hour days.  I bargain with myself saying (Thinking them, not saying them out loud; I’m not a crazy person.) things like, “I can afford it.  I have earned it.  I’m worth it.  Why not?”  But are those the questions one should ask? 

Try asking your friends and family what you’re addicted to if you dare and take some time off.  It’s scary.  It may even be something good for you.  Take a break from your desires.

If you don’t want to do that then at least ask some different questions than the ones listed above.  Ask yourself if you need it or just want it, not CAN you use it.  Don’t ask if you’re worth it but ask what you could be worth without it.  Ask yourself what you've wanted to do all your life that you never got around to doing, this desire might be in the way.  Don’t go sit under a lotus tree and wait for desire to die inside you.  Become a detective get the facts quick and then attack your desires.

You know Jesus, the one who was the son of God, not the one who wrote this book.  Well Jesus asked some people to give all they have to the poor and follow him.  He wasn't saying that’s a universal prescription but he was recommending it to so with dire prognoses.  Are you one that he wants all of?  Yes.  Are you one that gives him all that you desire?  Probably not.  Don’t worry, you’re in good company.

And for that .0001 percent out there, I’m not going to take your stuff but an accounting of what you did with it is going to be taken from you and Woe to you on that day if your desires have run amok.  To you who can do great things like buy yourself a helipad, please consider that what you have doesn't have to belong to you.  Please believe that ‘tis better to give than to receive.’