"I DON'T KNOW WHAT THIS WORLD'S COMING TO!" -- A READER SEES THIS MISSIVE GIVING VOICE TO VANILLA, MY FAVORITE ICE CREAM

 “I DON’T KNOW WHAT THIS WORLD ‘S COMING TO!” – A READER SEES THIS MISSIVE GIVING VOICE TO VANILLA, MY FAVORITE ICE CREAM

James R. Fisher, Jr., Ph.D.

August 9, 2011

REFERENCE:

There has been an avalanche of responses to this missive, I suspect, because of television’s economic talking heads on Wall Street (CNBC and FOX), Internet critics promoting their brand, and, of course, the climate of uncertainty.  I read and cherish them all.  Thank you.

The writer here I have met twice, both times when I was giving a speech at AQP International Conferences, once in Chicago and the other time in New Orleans. 

We have, however, corresponded for years by email, which is mentioned because I know how he has had to pick himself up by the bootstraps, and find his way to sanity and economic stability.  His response to this missive is testimony to his courage and persistence, and my reason for sharing it with you.

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A READER WRITES:

Hello Jim,

It continues to amaze. The manner in which you are able to so eloquently saunter down the middle of the road while casting the bright light of shame not only on the extremists at either curbside but also on the uncommitted wandering from curb to curb depending on which news outlet they heard last.

Having been self-employed for the past four years and earning far less than what the corporate world provided me, I have had a lot of time to reflect. This was after the denial, anger, bargaining and depression. I’m not sure I’ve accepted any of it yet.

I’d like to think that we are all complicit in the state of the world, but it’s not that easy. Like the frog in a pan of water being brought to a boil, the change had no alarm and few of us jumped out. I think about how easy it was to be caught up in the culture of consumption. Then, I thank my frugal parents for instilling in me their depression era values. You know, the ones that made you believe it’s all temporary. A penny saved…., a rainy day……, special occasions call for special celebration, but not every day is “special.”

I bought a fixer-upper two flat and rehabbed it. In my head I knew there was a nicer single family home five years down the road. With my own hands and sweat, while working in a factory 5 or 6 days a week, gutted and refinished the rental apartment first. That paid the mortgage while I worked on our apartment. With the mortgage nearly paid, we sold it for an $80K profit, which we used for a down payment on the home we wanted.

Patience and perseverance, traits that seem to have disappeared from our lexicon, served me well. It would have been easy, as the frog in the pan, to get caught up in the heating economy. There is a car commercial running frequently that sums it up, “I want it all, and I want it now.” People fall prey to the stimuli of their environment. Nobody needed a Jeep Cherokee in the mid-90s. But, they bought them like crazy using the “protect my family” rationale. I bought a 4-cylinder Nissan Sentra and drove defensively. The Cherokee grew to a behemoth all terrain four-wheel drive, an oversized, over-priced stroller and grocery cart. Of course, with a big car, people could now buy big things. The small car made it difficult to bring big things home and stopped me from wasting money on things I might use twice.

This evolution occurred over a decade. It wasn’t recognized as excessive consumerism. To us frogs it felt natural. Just think of the cultural inertia this creates. I really don’t believe people knew what they were doing. Even those who have become the popular scapegoats for the right, the poor saps that believed the mortgage brokers and bought homes they couldn’t afford. Or, blew away their equity on second mortgages so that, after years of doing things right, they could join the consumer culture and hang themselves. Then the unbalanced force of financial meltdown changed the motion.

And here’s stupid me. We didn’t take vacations; didn’t buy more transportation than we needed; went out to eat on special occasions. I turn 60 in a couple of months. We raised our granddaughter and grandson. We are paying her college tuition to a good school and will have his when he is ready. We are not worried about old age. We are not unique.

This country spends too much time kowtowing to the tails, the statistically insignificant. The Tea Party represents one of those tails. And, while I agree that America has forgotten the sensible people of the middle class, the Tea Party approach to governing is lost on me.

Finally, that’s one of the things I like about you being in the middle, not taking sides. The rich, the poor, the right, the left, the fundamentalists and the atheists seem to be the only ones heard. We had better wake up and give voice to vanilla.

Michael

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DR. FISHER RESPONDS:

Michael,

What a beautiful testimony to your faith, love, courage and persistence.  You epitomize what being American is all about, and I congratulate you.

Be always well,

Jim

 

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