"Colossal"

Rich people got busted this week for cheating their kids into top colleges.  I don't think this is news.  Do you really think the current US president would've been accepted into any college based on his own achievements?  Of course not.  He's barely literate and admits he hates reading.  Cheating by rich people isn't new, but it still ticks me off.

I was a good candidate to go to college.  Never mind I was a juvenile delinquent.  I had excellent grades and a drive to succeed.  My guidance counselor never spoke to me.  I didn't even know that's what she was supposed to do.  Nobody told me anything about college admissions or financial aid.  Dad had known, but he died.  One teacher told me to apply for a specific scholarship and then I was on my own.

Thankfully, I got the scholarship and got through college, at one time working 3 jobs while attending school full-time.  My grades suffered from my exhaustion and the sexual harassment I received at one of those jobs.  My grades dropped to a 3.2 GPA and I wasn't considered for boons offered at school like interviews with prominent companies.  I walked barefoot 10 miles to school in a blizzard, uphill both ways...

Oh, right, the point.  Well, I'm pretty sure it's easier to get good grades when studying is the only thing you have to do, you have enough food, and you have money for supplies that make your homework easier.  Rich people's spoiled brats are already guaranteed to get ahead.  They don't need to cheat or lie on their taxes.  Put them all in prison.

I talked to the father of one of my friends at a party.  He crowed about how he'd cheated the system and got significant financial aid for his son.  Never mind this was a wealthy family.  I could've stabbed that man in the heart.  I sputtered that I didn't get any financial aid.  My friend's father called me "Stupid!"

Maybe I was stupid, but I have to live with myself.  Rich people know how to get what they want, and they aren't burdened by my sense of ethics.  They rig colossal systems to keep getting what they want legally, let alone more than that.  They don't deserve more than the rest of us, even if they feel like they do.  I'd like some of that easy privilege too.  "Marsha, Marsha, Marsha!"*

Maybe getting upset about this kind of thing is a colossal waste of time, but we all like to think successes are earned and we can succeed too if we try hard enough.  "Behind every great fortune lies a crime" (Balzac) shouldn't stop any of us from trying to achieve, to do our best, and to be kind to each other in the process.

I'd like more money than I have.  I'm not going to cheat to get it.  I'm glad the bad guys got caught this time.  

I was looking through a box of papers the other day and came across the receipts for my great-grandparents' house (T.L. and Lucy).  I don't know the full story of it, and I don't know why I kept the receipts when I cleared out my Grandpa's home (Winley or W.W.).  I think I liked seeing how the debt was paid over time.  It shows love and commitment.  You can see those values in great art and writing too.

The art above is from a gift I gave my niece for getting her masters degree last year.  I'm pretty sure she didn't give anyone half a million dollars to achieve it.  I recently painted an elephant for someone which would've been great for "colossal" but I forgot to photograph it.  As I've said many times before, I'll try to remember next time!

*Brady Bunch reference for those of you in other countries or too young to know.

"Dog"

I look at my curled up lump of a dog at my feet and search for inspiration.  She sighs.  An ear twitches.  She sinks deeper into sleep and twitches a foot.  I watch her belly go in and out with each breath.  That's it.  She isn't offering any more inspiration than that unless it's for me to take deeper breaths and relax too.  Course if I got up and said "Let's go for a walk", she'd be up and bouncy in a split second, which I think is pretty incredible since she's ancient.  I hope I'm doing as well when I'm her equivalent age.

I couldn't think of what to write next so I got up to refill my glass of iced tea.  I bashed the glass on the doorframe, sent glass and ice flying in a noisy crash, and my puppy lazily got up to see what I'd done.  She sniffed an ice cube and wandered outside.  The glass didn't break, thankfully.

I was making a sandwich when she came back inside.  She hovered hopefully underfoot.  I dropped a bit of cheese and pointed at it before carrying my sandwich back to the computer and everything became as it was before.  Old dogs are so easy.  We have a rhythm.  We understand each other.  She leaves my art piles alone.

Lacking any blog inspiration, I go back to watching her breathing.  In out, in out, I match my breath to her's and get myself into a dopey hypnotic peacefulness.

In this relaxed state, I remember recently painting a portrait of my cousin's cat.  A cat is close enough for a "dog" post, right?  I sent the painting as a congratulations gift because she recently finished her law degree.  I'm impressed.  She's roughly my age and clearly is still tackling new challenges.  That's inspiring.  Makes me want to quit watching my dog breathe and do something inspirational too.

I also painted a portrait of my niece who recently graduated with her masters degree.  She likes Asian things and bleaches the ends of her hair blonde, or blue, whatever.  This isn't my usual kind of painting, but I enjoyed making it.  I hope she enjoys having it.

Shaking myself out of my hypnotic dog watching, I did have weather excitement this week with a microburst of tornado like winds, hail, and thunderstorm.  Trees and branches came down.  The top of a tree came down next door, flying over their garage but stopping short of their house and cars.  Really, it could not have come down more nicely.  It even just missed flattening my gooseberry bushes and hibiscus.

The neighbor next to them had a tree take down the electrical lines and we were all out of power for a day.  When the electric company came they asked to saw up my next door neighbors' downed tree so they could bring their equipment in the back yards to rescue the electric lines.  This was a huge relief as they're 2 older sisters who don't do chainsaws.

I thought the excitement was done, but no, I woke up to fire trucks and lights flashing.  The grounded wires sent electricity into the ground which traveled into the garage of the neighbor 3 doors down.  The garage smoldered and smoked, but no serious damage.  Really, I think everything turned out as luckily as it could for a micro tornado and it caused the neighbors to socialize when they were out with their dogs.