I must be a very simple minded dude. I look at our world and it does not seem overly complex. Whether it is food, energy, transportation, housing, clothes, or technology, we create stuff. 

People buy that stuff. If there isn’t enough we either create more or charge more for what we have. If there is too much we lower the price to where it becomes attractive. Man, am I a rocket scientist! Nobel prize here we come. 

The Federal Reserve wants to micromanage this. We can’t have inflation or at least it can’t be above 2.5%. Wall Street wants to analyze this ad nauseam. If you miss their interpretation of  your earnings by a few cents the the stock gets pummeled. No demand. If you beat it by ten cents it is off to the races. 

I am trying to dissect this further. You and I are integral parts of this whole production process. We create the demand side. We want to update, rehabilitate or just buy something for the fun of it. We need to eat and put petrol in our soon to be outmoded internal combustion car. We want to watch sports, news and the latest idiot show on network TV. We gotta have it.

The first question I ask myself is what if I did not buy anything? Not because I am unAmerican but because I just don’t need anything else. Okay, I will give you food but do we have to do everything in such ginormous portions. 24 ounce T Bones, Big Gulps, Obscene Chocolate bars. Do we really need all of this or is it just filling our desire to be entertained in some way? Life is so boring otherwise.

We all buy cars. These are modes of transportation. So are bikes and motor scooters but I digress. Whether it is gas or electric we use these puppies about 5% of the time unless you are a traveling salesman or long haul trucker. Think about it. We insure it, maintain it, wash it, coo over it and this ungrateful bastard depreciates faster than your stock portfolio in a Monday crash. 

Yet when we get bored with it or feel the urge for a new gizmo or power source and dump it every 2-3 years. It is perfectly good but we have to keep up with the Jones. Wait TTG, it is out of warranty. It will cost a fortune to fix. Correct me if I am wrong. You shell out X amount to upgrade and that tidy sum would more than cover a complete engine overhaul. I guess I am stupid. How about boats or vacation homes?

When was the last time you went out on your yacht or spent time in Vail or Alta? At Desert Mountain we could calculate the length of time you stayed as a correlative to the size of the house. The bigger the mansion the more you had other places to go.

Moving right along to clothing. The shirts, shorts, dresses, shoes, baubles and bangles…the whole shebang. I not asking you to wear hair shirts and sackcloths, but go into your closet right now and tell me how much is necessary for you to appear in public? I know you would not be seen in that. 

Last but not least is electronics…computers,TV’s, sound systems, phones, earbuds…shall I go on? I look at my five year old TV and think there has to be something on the market with a sharper picture because of a gazillion pixels. Of course there is and I will put the old one out at the curb. 

People, I am not a Scrooge. I love the good stuff just the same as you but what are the ramifications? We are all in the “end of the world as we know it” syndrome. Global warming, pollution, nuclear threats all wrapped into one. Yet we party on and want more and more. It is the American and probably the world way. 

If I did not want so much would there be food to spare on the planet. How much do I need to survive and even have a dessert every now and then? 38% of the world’s surface is used for food. How much energy, water and chemicals do we need to produce to feed our faces. 

We recently went to the Ford F 150 factory in Dearborn, Michigan. It was an incredible display of our ingenuity to create something. One of these beauties rolls off the line every 54 seconds. For a moment think of what went into that truck from frame, to windows, to seats, to tires etc. How much energy did it take to create just one with thousands of parts, whether it be gas or electric? 

Where am I going? Let’s try for a moment to look at our lives as a pleasant meal rather than an all you can eat Smorgasbord.

What if we took it down just a couple of notches? I get this horrible feeling we have gone way over the top. Our lives are fantasy rather than reality. We are obsessed with this Eden like dream that we will do anything and everything to make come true. 

Please don’t take this as a downer but maybe just a minor pause to look around at what we have all created. Is there a basic plan or are we just plowing willy nilly into the future without a care of what possible disaster we are creating? We have a vast supply of some very smart people. Let’s create the demand for some critical and strategic thinking. It might work!

As always 

Ted The Great 

Factoids:

Standard of living refers to the level of wealth, comfort, material goods, and necessities available to a certain socioeconomic class or geographic area. Quality of life, on the other hand, is a subjective term that can measure happiness.   Objective and subjective measurements. 

A need is an essential requirement or a necessity whereas a want is a desire.

The fulfillment of needs is essential for one’s survival whereas fulfillment of wants is not essential for one’s survival.

The average carbon footprint for a person in the United States is 16 tons, one of the highest rates in the world. Globally, the average carbon footprint is closer to 4 tons.

Burning fossil fuels emits CO2, with coal releasing twice as much of the gas as petroleum. Worldwide, fossil fuels generate 85 percent of electricity.

Transportation: Whether for business or pleasure, locomotion is the second largest source of U.S. CO2 emissions. International travel is also a factor. A study of cruise ships found that vacationing at sea emits 12 times more CO2 than vacationing on land.

Building: Industrial manufacturing emits lots of CO2, but it only accounts for 2 percent of U.S. emissions. Iron and steel manufacturing and cement production are the biggest offenders.

Trees are potent organisms for absorbing and removing CO2 emissions from the air.Loss of forestlands account for 20 percent of global CO2 emissions.

Not sure how this all adds up but it was interesting to this inquisitive mind. 

Writer’s Note: This a blog I wrote over ten years ago. I thought it would be fun to go back.Some things never change. TTG

Reach Out And Touch Someone June 22, 2011 5:37 am MDT

Life is full of incredible possibilities. I have had one of those fabulous weeks of interacting with people. I have met dozens of new faces, given 5 attaboys, had in depth talks with four great friends, given two talks and hugged and kissed ad nauseam. I’m in seventh heaven.

I love to hug and kiss everyone. In today’s society that may get me in trouble but TS. I hug men. I hug women. Especially young women. I tell my kids, I love them every chance I get. I say “Hi Beautiful” to my granddaughter, Harper. She says “Hi Handsome” right back.

　

The Irish are a wonderful lot. I had tears in my eyes on Sunday watching Rory McElroy come up the 18^th at Congressional. He was hugged by his fellow countryman, Graheme Mcdowell. He was hugged by his wonderfully understated dad. He was loved by all. It was a sight to behold. Life is good.

But hugging is an art. You have to be careful because some people are reticent. Especially guys. They give you a funny look. A real funny look. They sometimes even give you a strong pushback even on handshakes. I want to give everyone a bear hug. It’s just my style.

Now kissing is a whole other gig. I kiss my wife, my daughters and sons. Not all in the same way. Guys really don’t like kissing. I kissed my homophobic brother as he lay dying and I knew it would be our last meeting. His eyes got as big as golf balls. It shook him up so much he rallied for two or three days.

My daughters think kissing me on the lips is gross. They at least do cheeks. Women for the most part just give air kisses.

That’s okay. They don’t know what they are missing.

As you can probably gather I am slowly coming out of my shell. I have decided from this point forward not to take myself so seriously. Sure the market stinks. Real estate is down. I shot 100 on Saturday but came back with an 85 on Sunday. I love you man!

A young man came to wash the windows on our house the other day. His name was Brendan. Scruffy in a friendly way, he had found his way to Denver six months ago. It turns out he has been everywhere from Louisiana to Haiti to Peru and Iowa. He had simply been helping out people struck by disaster with no remuneration. No complexity and no ego. Just a very decent person. I wanted to hug him but we had just met.

I love to tell women they are pretty, when they are. My daughters think it is creepy. My wife thinks I am a flirt. She said I may get picked up….by the police. I am just having fun.

There was an octogenarian woman in church who was dressed to the nines. She had a big red hat and looked like a million. I went over and told her how great she looked. I asked if all the guys in Denver were chasing her ? She asked me if I had any older brothers?

I sit on the front porch and will engage anyone who cares. I have taken to writing a mini blog and hanging it on the fence right next to our cement goose. I leave a pen and people respond. Some neighbors. Some strangers. Just people reaching out.

We are going to San Diego this week to see great friends we haven’t seen in a couple of years. They are nuts and we love it. I also hope to meet up with an old Swift Boat buddy I haven’t seen in 40 years. Please accept a collect phone call if we all wind up in jail.

Why am I carrying on like this? Just a silly Monday morning. I played golf with my son Scott yesterday. We had dinner with him, my lovely daughter in law and their kids. I had breakfast of sorts with my two daughters. Great memories. Sappy? You bet.

In this crazy world we live in, it is sometimes just goofy fun to be a little crazy.

As I said last week, life is too short. Go ahead and just hug someone. Catch them by surprise. Plant a big smacker right on their lips. If you get slapped consider it your red badge of courage. If they smile or wink at you, all the better.

As Always,

Ted The Great

Factoids for Weird Wednesday:

There are more people alive today than have ever lived……          Children laugh sometimes 100 times a day. Adults 15 times……       Women blink twice as much as men…my little chikadee ….. Finally, sneezes usually exceed 100 miles per hour