Paul Merrill | Shiny Bits of Life

December 23, 2014December 21, 2014

What would you do with a million dollars?

a million dollars in nairobi We had a million dollars. We lived in an alternate universe for five years, where we had a million dollars compared to some of our neighbors.

Nairobi, Kenya, is a huge city in East Africa. The distance between the rich and the poor is huge. As a result, crime is more common than in most parts of North America and Europe. There are more razor wire fences, alarm systems, security guards and carjackings.

I know it’s nice to focus on the positive aspects of other cultures, but that’s not my mission today. Instead, I want to tell you what it’s like to be rich.

Generally, it’s not fun. Simply eating at a restaurant caused a lot of guilt. We knew the price of one not-even-fancy meal could have fed a hungry family for days. Was the brief pleasure of eating out worth it? We thought so, as dining out was one of our ways to survive.

And we gave. We invested in people who were naturally part of our lives. We quickly learned that just giving money was not the answer.

Providing training allowed a young man to have a better-paying job that made a difference that lasted a lifetime. But it was a lot of blood, sweat and tears to make that path actually work, on his part and ours.

Paying for dental work for a lady we knew allowed her to eat with no pain, for years afterward.

So how do you deal with the guilt in your life? I would encourage you to not sit on it or suppress it. Do something.

Epilogue: We have been back in the land of Target and Prada for more than seven years. We are not directly involved in the lives of those we helped back then. And the guilt of having so much relative wealth decreases as time washes our memories away. But we’re still trying to make a difference in situations that are in front of us now. We fail a lot – and still eat at restaurants. But we are doing something.

December 16, 2014December 14, 2014

Pride, literally, comes before a fall

I love riding my bike to work, even in the cold and dark of winter. Knowing that if I can’t be seen, I can be run over, I bought a taillight so bright that “it can cause seizures,” as a friend described it. That same friend went on to tell me of his ultra-bright headlight that allowed him to see potholes and road imperfections.

I pridefully said I was good with my little flashing headlight that allowed me to be seen – but not to see.

The very next evening after that conversation, I was riding home and ran head-over-heels into a corner curb. I had assumed that there was a wheelchair ramp on that corner. No.

Ouch!

Thankfully, I did not tumble into oncoming traffic or damage myself or my bike more than just a few scrapes and a destroyed innertube.

Lesson learned. I need to listen to advice, even when it’s not given as such. (My pride could have been the death of me.)

December 9, 2014December 7, 2014

Where to give this Christmas

homeless sign Homelessness is sometimes a result of mental illness. Often that is combined with substance abuse.

My friend and I encountered another friend we hadn’t seen in a year. Our not-seen friend is now homeless. No substance abuse is involved, but there are definitely some other powerful issues at play.

I’ll be talking with two friends who are experts at my church to find out some ways to help him. It’s complicated.

So this Christmastime, I think it’s a great idea to give to an organization in your area that helps the homeless. You’ll be assisting those who have reached bottom and maybe providing hope for the future.

December 2, 2014November 23, 2014

Great thinking

Sprouts, a health-oriented supermarket with stores near us, has a great idea… double-sided receipts! I’m not referring to the kind with advertising on the back. These have purchase information carried onto the formerly blank side.

This will effectively save about twice as much paper as regular receipts. Yes, there is an infrastructure cost – registers that can print tape on both sides are probably more expensive than those that print only on one side. But that cost will eventually be made up. Or not. Even if it costs more money in the long run, that’s a nice investment in the health of our planet.

If you want to find your nearest Sprouts, click here.

November 25, 2014November 23, 2014

Stop worrying

illustration of worried forehead It was a surprise. And not a good one.

The result was waking up earlier than I wanted – and not drifting back into the peaceful novocaine of sleep.

Then I remembered this: “Can all your worries add a single moment to your life?” (Jesus said that in Matthew.) Worrying won’t fix anything. In fact, it will probably take away more than a moment of my life.

So I urge you – and me – to stop worrying.

November 18, 2014November 8, 2014

It’s not worth it

nature box snacks Free is something that sometimes motivates me. Who doesn’t want to get something without paying for it, as long as it’s not stolen?

But few things are really free.

I subscribed to the snack service Graze for free. The snacks were OK, but were priced far more than the tastier (and less healthy) snacks I buy at the grocery store. Also, more than one-fourth were not tasty. So I unsubscribed before the trial period ended.

An ad for Nature Box on This American Life*motivated me to visit their site. I concluded that it was too similar to Graze to make me want to hassle with unsubscribing later.

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If you are a frequent reader of Shiny Bits of Life, you know that I love cars. And since car manufacturers have deep pockets, they throw the occasional free promotion at people like me. One of my favorite free things was a test drive of the latest 3-series, when BMW was doing a national promotional tour. No sales person sat next to me while I pushed the car to its limits. A free cap was waiting at the end of the ride.

Aaah.

– –

* This American Life is a podcast and radio show on National Public Radio, for people outside of the USA.

November 11, 2014November 2, 2014

On musical creativity

james-and-carly James Taylor has produced more than 16 albums that sound relatively the same. He gets bored too,* but he doesn’t need to break out of that mold to stay alive. I truly like his sound, but it has not changed much over the many years he has been a musician.

Some artists are limited by their creativity and others seem to have a bottomless fount.

Thom Yorke is the leader of the English group, “Radiohead,” that produced some very popular music during the 1990’s and 2000’s. Thom’s solo albums are weird. He went from almost mainstream pop in Radiohead’s early years to excursions down various trails of weirdness. My theory is that he was bored delivering what the masses wanted. (I like that weirdness, at least part of the time. And he stretched music in new ways that it needed to be stretched.)

There are countless musicians who have not created even one good song. A few of those have become rich making their sound available to the masses. There is no accounting for taste. And I’m glad everyone’s taste is not like mine.

* The James Taylor song, “That’s Why I’m Here” is referred to part of the way into Sylviebead’s blog post.

Photo is Creative Commons licensed, via Peter Trudelle on Flickr.

November 4, 2014November 6, 2014

My dream truck

I didn’t take time to make it really convincing in Photoshop.

But I think you get my point – why not go even bigger and badder? (Meanwhile, I continue to drive my little car – and live in fear of such machines.)

October 21, 2014October 19, 2014

Beauty with age

rusted light fixture It’s rusting.

Is rust beautiful? Some think so. Others think it needs to be sanded off, painted with primer and given a protective coat. For our bathroom light fixture, we could go one of three ways – leave it as it is, replace it or fix it. The lazy option won out – for the time being.

Another thing about this light fixture’s rust is that it causes the fixture to no longer look new – and it’s not perfect anymore.

The desire for perfection varies from person to person. As people mature, they realize that all battles can’t be won, so they must choose which battles to fight. One must decide whether each fight for perfection is worth spending the energy, time and/or money to win.

October 14, 2014October 12, 2014

They do the same thing

Tutima watch dial I love expensive watches. But I would never buy one.

One warm fall day I was driving north on a major street in suburban Denver. At every stop light, my $3,000 Toyota arrived slightly before the $100,000 Porsche in the lane next to me. Both drivers were accomplishing the same thing – going from Littleton to Denver.

A $2,000 Tutima watch tells time maybe just slightly more accurately than a $30 Timex. Its intricate detail is beautiful to behold. The owner knows that he supported a craftsman in Germany rather than a factory worker in China. If the owner breaks it, his tears will last much longer than those of someone who breaks their Timex.

But the Tutima owner is buying exclusivity. He may be the only kid on his block with that model. He knows that his wrist is holding a reflection of high human achievement.

How long does the pleasure of buying an expensive watch last? For some, a long time. For those with many, probably a short time.

I do grant a peer-review aspect to the equation. If a real estate agent is trying to sell a $2,000,000 house, she may not want to be seen wearing a $35 watch. With a Patek Philippe on her wrist, the message is, “I’m in your league.”

Which watch will you buy?