Since the way we celebrate the holidays here in the States always makes me think of "overdoing it" and "excess", here is one thing I am most grateful for: wealthy people who actually use their excess money to do good in the world.
If you read my review of the home tour I went on last weekend, you may have noticed the slightly snarky tone that crept into my voice when I described the 6,000 sq. ft. showplaces where nobody actually lived. The ones sitting on several hundred acres of property, and which were just one of five or six other "weekend places" owned by these wealthy couples. At first I was just feeling a bit disgruntled (OK, make that disgusted) because I had got to thinkin' about all the millions of better uses that money could have been put to, but then another sleep-snatching thought occurred to me.
Each of those week-end showplaces was surrounded by acres and acres of manicured lawn...lawn that is kept green and perfect by automatic sprinkler systems...sprinkler systems that are being kept on year round, and are sucking millions of gallons of water from an already depleted aquifer in a drought-plagued part of the country where ordinary people's wells are going dry...all so that these properties can impress the handful of guests that get paraded through, a handful of times per year.
These people think they are living the good life, but they are most definitely not.
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2 comments:
You said it all. I would also have been snarky, disgruntled, angry, and out-of-sorts. Unfortunately these feelings only serve to make me feel bad and do nothing to change all this excess. All we can continue to do is try for increased awareness and education.
You are absolutely right Lindy!
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