It is interesting to note that everything in today's society seems to revolve around the almighty dollar. The barometer is set to measure and distinguish the haves from the have-nots. Well, motorcycles are what I have.
Today a volleyball player asked me if I worked with computers, to which I responded in the affirmative. He was with a group of 3 others from his team (during lunch break in an all day tournament), and mentioned that he thought so, seeing that I owned several bikes. The implication is that I worked in the lucrative IT profession and could afford having these in my garage.
Lucrative? IT is such a broad classification where jobs can pay little actually. I'm in a position where I can't complain, although I believe there is potentially more income to be had elsewhere. But the opposite side of that coin is that I could also make considerably less.
Let's talk about what I have not. My house is rather small (at under 1000 sq.ft.) and is an over 50 year old stucco tract home. Everything about my home is crying out for a do-over. I do not have cable or satellite TV or TiVo. No iPod and no iPhone (my old clamshell Sanyo allows me to make calls on my basic plan of about 200 anytime minutes per month). My savings account is rather meager. I have only one suit, and I am not sure that it fits anymore.
But of course there are those who have even less. Housing is rented (as if that's a bad thing), or home is wherever there's a vacant shelter. There are people who are clinging on to their old analog TVs if they even have a TV set at all (but the FCC killed analog now, didn't they?). How about not having any kind of phone or electronic entertainment gadget?
It was interesting that the vball player who asked happens to have retired at an early age. I think it was in real estate, and I'm guessing he was around 50 years old, give or take a couple of years. He owned a Porsche Boxster, is married with kids and a 2-story home in a nice neighborhood. There's a game room with a pool table and big screen TV. He competes in bicycling, and pound for pound, those are expensive machines.
I am more embarrassed being thought of as richer than poorer. To each his own, and I try to minimze the almighty's impact on my own little personal society. Let's just say that I'm somewhere in the middle. There are many who are better off financially than I, while I am blessed to have what I do have, which many have not. I am richer than the poor and poorer than the rich... sacrifices are made in order to accommodate your priorities.
My priority happens to be motorcycles and motorcycling. And my cats.
