During a slow renovation of my old apartment, I realized there are a couple of rules to wall painting.
1. You WILL get paint on your clothes.
2. There WILL be drops onto the floor.
3. All the tedious work is worth the effort in the end.
Last night while watching some TED talks on Netflix it dawned on me that these rules certainly have a wider application to life.
We were all told as children not to take candy from strangers. Look at us all now, having been offered the sweetest treat imaginable, and most of us gobbling it up quite willingly. The treat is seemingly limitless technology at our fingertips.
How is that bad? Well, the strangers who gave us that candy now track our every word, whim, and movement. And we are so happy with our sweet treats that we try not to care that they're doing that.
To make things worse, the strangers have opened back doors for other characters with very bad intentions who can enter into our spheres.
Here's how I rationalize this risk to myself. Safety in numbers. I and my accounts which are full of information are but one target within a herd of millions, like a life and death chase on the Serengeti. What are the chances that I will be the one data buffalo singled out by the information predator?
And does some nefarious information collecting program really want to see a text in which I've invited a friend to lunch? Or might my blog attract untoward attention? There are millions just like it.
Statistically, those of us Americans who live regular, typical lives, at least as of today, probably will not have a negative, life changing event caused by the information sweep of the planet that is currently going on.
But we could. And we each need to be and continue to stay vigilant about our own data footprints, and have a healthy wariness for those strangers with candy.
It happened again. A record breaking art auction. This time a Picasso painting called Les Femmes D'Alger, created in 1954-55, sold at Christie's for $179.4 million.
I love art, but I can't help thinking about all the meaningful things that could be done with that amount of money.
But who am I to say what an individual should or should not do with his or her money? Isn't that what freedom is all about?
Most people who can indulge do indulge to some degree.
Just what is the moral middle ground between being a Mother Teresa and a One Percenter? Just where would that line be drawn?
Who came up with that 10% of income figure for giving to church or charity? Is that a number that relieves guilt?
Or why should we even feel guilty at all if our life lottery ticket is luckier than someone else's?
My personal answer is that showing off in one's lifestyle is very distasteful. Flaunting in the face of want is just ugly behavior.
Our celebrity driven media feeds the public's fascination with money and power, but I don't think that every person watches only with envy.
Some people wonder why those uber materialists don't appear to give a second thought about what they're doing.
