random thoughts from a morning run

"If you know how to spend less than you get, you have the philosopher's stone." ~ Benjamin Franklin

This week the city in which I claim residence was listed as the #3 place to live in the US. The only one of 200 selections from Massachusetts. I’ve been here six years… six and a half… well, we could round it up to seven if one wants to include that brief stint I had in the rambling old Victorian 11 years ago. But, I like my town. It’s a good place. Good people. It’s green, yet close to the city. Close to the major roads that get me back to Central MA and all the people and things I love there. 

I like that I go for a run at six in the morning and see people smile or wave, whether I know them or not. I like that it is so green, both in the literal sense… and in the sense that there are probably more Priuses per capita than most places in the country. I like the villages, the strength of the mom and pop stores, and the diversity of each of them. I like that there is a diverse rainbow of people and tolerance of lifestyles in my town. I like that there are a lot of liberals.

But I’m not blind. I know where I live… well, I could never own a piece of property here. Way, way, way out of my league. I know that there are a lot of people who couldn’t care less about all that stuff I just listed. People who argued about raising taxes to keep teachers and firemen employed. People who just don’t care enough to be bothered…

And then… then there are things like I observed this morning as my eyes left groggy and widened into observation with the elation of a slight runner’s high. Maybe it was oxygen deprivation distorting my perspective… but sometimes, geez, sometimes I just DO NOT understand why people do what they do.

This actually isn’t a new lament. It’s just the timing seems ever more tacky at present than in the past when I’ve decried it. I actually run through the hills of my zip code where my impecunity will likely never allow me to live. But, I like the shady sidewalks and the history lover adores the big old houses. 

I wrestle with this adoration. I don’t really know when one should draw the line at preservation of the past and making room for something new and more efficient. Holding onto an old house is really… well, it sits in my mind a lot. But, I still feel sad when I see a lovely piece of architecture demolished… only to see its property cleared and expanded so a brand new mcmansion can rise in its place. If I thought for a second that the new house was more efficient, friendlier to the earth, more beautiful… maybe I could not trouble my mind with such things. But I doubt these larger, built in less than six months, monstrosities pay much heed to the environment when they are lit up like Christmas trees all the bloody year long. They drain more water with more bathrooms and eliminate trees with their grander square footage. YUCK.

So I run by a lot each morning where a lovely 1920’s house has given way to foundation carving for its noveau riche replacement. It saddens me… especially when I have breakfast over the morning news and see how many foreclosures are expected this year. How disgusting. Seriously.

But it doesn’t stop me from running that route – maybe I dart a little faster to avoid looking and taking in that tacky display of disregard. Then a mile later I go by another of these ugly replacement houses. It was built three years ago in lieu of a perfectly adequate ranch house. But this week I was willing to give it some forgiveness when I noticed a brown lawn. I thought, well, that’s cool. Maybe the ridiculous rich at least don’t feel the need to drain the water supply to make their obscenely large lawn look so green in the heat wave. Yeah, no. This morning, the landscaper had laid down new sod to replace the brown patches. 

So… what’s my point? I really shouldn’t be that alarmed when I run through the neighborhood of the privileged to see them spend their money so frivolously, with disregard to… well, the environment. They all have super SUVs parked in the driveways. Like global warming is really a priority. 

But… it just… with all this hoopla about spending, about how out of control the habits of our elected officials are with the budget… how can we point fingers? What are we doing? Well, one might argue, they have that money. It’s their money. If the rich want to spend it on new sod, they sodding well can. It isn’t for the greedy poor working folk to say they need to spend it on filling a pothole or reducing a class size in a public school. 

They say the economic improvement is at a plateau. Or maybe it isn’t even the improvement the spin doctors want us to believe. Because we keep spending money. And depleting our resources.Because we continue to make demands of governments that we don’t make of ourselves.