Jewelry

When I was little, as little as a button, my mother and father used to tell me that if I work hard I will have anything I ever wanted and that anything is possible as long as you want it to happen. These words stuck in my mind, as I am sure they stuck into yours too. And then there is also the saying that fairytales are not meant to tell children that dragons exist, since children are all too aware that dragons exist. Fairytales are meant to show children that dragons can be killed.



So, the words my parents told me back then are difficult to combat, because whenever you see a success story you go “see? It IS possible. If they can do it so can anyone else”, while when failure comes knocking, and you say “it was impossible, I wanted it but it didn’t happen” then there will surely be someone around to tell you “you didn’t want it bad enough”.



Anyway, my point is that now I am older. I still believe what my parents told me, but I look around and I don’t see any jewelry warehouse in the backyard and no Bentley parked out-front. Does this make me a failure? I think not. I mean, sure, I want to believe that I am not, and I keep telling myself that, adding that my jewelry warehouse is my mind, but then there is that little devil on my left shoulder asking me with a big grin: “if your mind is your jewelry warehouse, then why do you sometimes feel like you want to stop working, but you can’t, because you have mortgages to pay and you can’t live on intellect. If you are so smart, then where’s your proof? Should I take your word for it?”. Then I get depressed.

Anyway, the depression passes and I once again find myself doing something I like, free from gut retching responsibility and free from the thought that I have millions of employees who are my responsibility and for whom I need to make all the right decisions and I can’t afford any mistakes. I am a free person and since my jewelry warehouse is my mind, there are no paparazzi hyenas going through my trash or taking photos of my… well… everything.



My working hours end at a precise time, at which point the freedom starts and I can do whatever I want, pursue the habits I have developed in my own lifestyle and I am perfectly happy and pleased with what I have right now. Sure, there is room for improvement, always, but exaggeration is never good for anything. Then there is that old Zen Buddhist saying by which “a frog that has lived in a well its entire life dies happy thinking that it has seen the entire world and everything in it”. Well, right now I am feeling like that frog and I think I understand the saying that “ignorance is bliss”. I mean, mediocrity is only bad if it refers to the brain. When it refers to financial potency, mediocrity is the middle road that allows happiness and enough prosperity to keep a balance in all things, good and bad. Now excuse me while I go do some chanting and stuff.