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JustPlainBill's avatar

I assume that the first picture below is the 7 y/o selling lottery tickets? It is sad to see someone so young already shackled to a task in order to help her family get by.

There is a lot of truth to your observation that "online emoting often triggers snarkiness or anger, but face to face conversations routinely induce mirth." Body language, hand movements, facial expression, tone of voice, even the emphasis placed on words and the hesitations introduced into speech all communicate in a way that is impossible to duplicate on-line. And that is why the "virtual life" the elites want us to embrace will never adequately replace the old-fashioned manner of human relations.

I think there is some truth to the Buddhist monk’s belief in the power of funny stories to heal. Positivity is important not just for yourself, but for those around you. I spent the last decade of my working life as a supervisor, but only after retirement did I realize that one of a leader’s most important but difficult duties is exuding positivity even when he feels like complaining. My occasional inability to pull this off is what made me only a middling supervisor. Negativity is infectious, and after all, complaining is at its root a confession of one’s powerlessness.

The rising number of lottery ticket sellers is certainly one indicator of the state of public prosperity or the lack of it. Here I see the rising number of lottery ticket BUYERS similarly, and it is also instructive to see who they are.

Not long ago, we drove past a rather rumpled woman of indeterminate age panhandling in the median of a freeway on/off-ramp, with the now-increasingly-common “anything helps” cardboard sign. To me it did not seem like a very good place for accepting handouts, since only one car will stop nearby, and only if the light is red. Better to stand next to a stop sign, where every car has to stop. In our case, the light was green when we arrived at the intersection, and stopping wasn’t an option since it would back up traffic exiting the freeway behind us.

We went on to our errand in the nearby grocery store, and sometime later, on our way out, we passed the lottery ticket vending machine. Lo and behold, standing in front of it, pulling crumpled dollar bills out of her pocket and buying lottery tickets, was the same woman we had seen on the freeway off-ramp. The first impulse of someone who had given her something might be anger or irritation. But then perhaps one is forced to recognize that the despair of many has reached the point that they believe a lucky “lightning strike” is their only hope of salvation.

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Jon Orton's avatar

It's depressing to see on the pink jacketed little girl's face. A seven year old is meant to wear a permanent smile, not an expression of trepidation made all the more heart wrenching by seeing her fingers intertwined in unconscious supplication.

Care giving of senile or crippled old Europeans and Americans is a booming industry - offering employment in the first world to those from the third world. I know several people, some of whom are as old as 80, taking care of elderly cripples who are sometimes younger than they are. The care givers are often Europeans from in-between countries like South Africa which is testament to that country's collapsing currency (and infrastructure).

Decrepit old age seems far removed at the moment, but it's astonishing how quickly it'll creep up. Cast your mind back 20 years - it seems like yesterday. But looking forward 20 years seems like an age. It won't be - it'll pass even more quickly than the last 20 years did (a phenomenon caused by a year becoming an ever decreasing proportion of our life as we age).

We all need to plan for our dotage but most never do. There are a few options: 1) stay fit and healthy enough to look after yourself until you die, 2) have sufficient money to pay someone to look after you as you become frail, 3) take yourself off into the countryside at a time of your choosing, lie down and wait until thirst sends you off.

I've been very familiar with 90+ year olds who've stayed fit and healthy and known a couple of people who've taken the third option. However most have taken the second route - looked after either by family, frail care or a helper in a third world country they've moved to. The sad fact of modern life is that, with so few modern couples having children, the surviving partner is unlikely to have family to turn to and will spend their final years in the company of strangers.

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