The Worst Christmas Ever (? or !)

This year it appears as though millions will have the worst Christmas ever. Millions will lose their homes over the next three weeks, millions more will lose their jobs and their life savings.

In 2008, the material dream is shattered. The rules are broken. Society says that if you go to school, go to college, get a degree and get a job and work from 9-5 for five days a week you will be prosperous, secure and be able to retire with a nice nest egg.

Ha.

The rules have changed. There are no rules. Now the person who has played by "the rules" all their life, after forty years in the workforce can find themselves just as "penniless" as the kid who dropped out of high school last year and now works at the local fast food joint - and that kid may now have a better credit rating!

Is this fair? How can life be so apparently unfair? Where is the justice? And all this before Christmas? Is this some sort of global punishment dished out by a ticked off deity?

Well, I'm here to tell you that life is fair. Most folks know that all those that refinanced their houses were often irresponsible and greedy - they hungrily wanted that cash equity. And many of them burned through fifty or more thousand dollars like it was Monopoly money.

So the foreclosures are often (but not always) happening to the greediest. There is fairness in that - since greed attracts loss like poop attracts flies. That these greedy folks often now have sacrificed their families' well being and future through this greed is just one of life's very harsh lessons.

Then there are the job losses. How on earth can this be fair? That is a tougher one to reconcile. Are only the greedy people losing their jobs? Hardly - well, excepting the UAW and those same folks that burned through their home equity.

But now we need to look at a larger scale. Losses now may be offset by gains later. The non-greedy guy who loses his home and job now may find a much better home at a cheaper price and a better job just around the corner.

So one has to see currnet events in both past/future contexts and then one realizes that balance is always achieved. Everything is energy and it is constantly seeking balance. All the material events around you are just energy. All the news - energy. You, your family and neighbors - energy.

In such a context one realizes life is not unfair and this Christmas is just like any other and can't be labeled as the worst. It's just part of a larger equation of ceaseless balancing.

Try to stay on equilibrium as the waves of despair crash against you. I know it's tough. All too often I succumb to a choice bit of vitriol and vituperation for the verily vexing, vast, vapid environment known as Earth.