Ugly Americans

Before I begin this rant, let me make one very important observation: our family is richly blessed to have our faith, very supportive and loving family and friends, good health, a wonderful house, bountiful food, clothes, and the ability to buy just about anything we want/need. While we have and continue to work hard, we are also fortunate to have as much as we do. God has truly blessed us many times over.

I think about how much we have on just about a daily basis. Sometimes I feel guilty for having so much while the vast majority of the planet is eking by on the bare minimum that can sustain life. We are shielded from it somewhat living in the U.S., until a natural disaster comes along and we are forced to face reality...for a short time at least.

Throughout my childhood, we never had as much as Cindy, I and the boys have now -- even in the very best of times. But that didn't affect how I look back at those years. They were great, mainly because we had each other. We didn't need much more than that.

Now I realize that TV news is full of sound bites and pieces and parts of stories. So I will allow that these quotes may have been cherry-picked from a much larger group. But even if they represent a few anomalies, they are disturbing nonetheless.

To the question of "how have the high gas prices affected your plans for the Memorial Day weekend?", here are some of the responses that NBC Nightly News received from viewers (my comments in italics):

"We will be spending a lot less. We usually do rib eye steaks and racks of ribs with lots of sides - macaroni salad, corn on the cob, baked beans, etc. This year it will be homemade hamburgers with french fries and soda instead of beer. The ground beef was bought on clearance a few weeks ago and frozen - I'll thaw it for weekend use."

Oh no...homemade hamburgers, french fries and soda. What the heck is wrong with that?!?! I actually prefer homemade burgers, especially the ones my Mom used to make!

"Instead of our usual ribs, we are having burgers. As bleak as it sounds, next year we may have a cup of soup."

Again slamming the good ole American hamburger. See above.

"Our plans this Memorial Day weekend to go boating and camp out were dashed by the ever-rising prices at the gas pumps. We decided to save the money and stay home and cook out... Ten gallons in the boat: $40. Twenty gallons in the camper: $80. Payment for camping fees: $45. The look on our faces after we tried to buy food: Priceless."

Don't even know where to start here. Grab your tent and blow-up raft and head out to a local campsite. Gas = $20, Boat = $0, Campsite = $40. Don't have a tent or a raft? Make friends with someone who does. Or just stay home and cook out, like this person was forced to do. Make the best of it. Plenty of people do.

"We are cutting expenses in every aspect of our daily lives to accommodate the high fuel cost. 1) Buying in bulk for food: Costco, Wal-Mart. 2) Staying home to watch movies on cable. 3) Vacation will be limited to going to the local beach and coming back home on the same day."

My sister Terry lives for number 1! And now Cindy is hooked on The Grocery Game. Watching movies on cable? Yeah, you don't get to share the experience with 300 of your closest friends who do fun things like take cell phone calls during the movie. And your feet won't stick to the floor at home. Bummer! Finally, most of our vacations growing up were to various beaches close to home (Naples, Stuart, Hutchinson Island, etc.) We did get fancy and stay in the local Holiday Inn for several nights, so I guess we were much better off then.

Again, I am not saying that everyone these days is spoiled rotten (are they?) And I fully realize we have more than 99+% of people. But our family growing up didn't, and we had a great time doing whatever we did 'cause we had each other and we considered ourselves very blessed. I didn't even know what a rib-eye steak was till I was a grownup-er!