Live Like a Millionaire
Today is “National Be a Millionaire Day” and that has me wondering – What would you do with a million?
Would you take a stance much like coveting Park Ave and Boardwalk in Monopoly and live high on the hog? Or when you hear million, does you mind go straight to the rich, staple dessert, millionaire pie, that Texans loved from Luby’s? (RIP, Luby’s).
Would you spend it? Save it? Donate it? Invest it? There are many options to consider when thinking about that many zeros. There are 18.6 million millionaires in the US, so reaching that level of monetary wealth isn’t really that farfetched this day and age.
I honestly don’t know what I’d do with money like that. Probably not live any different than I do today, to be honest. Money is just money to me, and I’ve learned over the years that the more you have, the more you spend. Money can change some people and make them turn into different people. Greed is a despicable trait and it even turned people away from me a time or two.
When my dad passed away, he listed me as a beneficiary in his will, as he did his two other children. One sum, split three ways – that was fair and how my father intended it to be. Those other two tried to step all over my portion of my inheritance and cut me out, telling other family members that I was actually not our father’s child and they were going to make sure that I didn’t see a thing. It was very ugly, and I haven’t spoken to them in years because of this. Imagine that. My own siblings.
They were wrong about one thing, though. I did see a thing. I have my dad’s USPS uniform shirts, his Hanes undershirts and a clock that he gave me while he was alive. The things that matter most to me are those that are sentimental because everything else is just materialistic things. The had emptied my father’s house of all his possessions without even telling me that he has passed away until the donation truck left.
They might feel like they gained something, but they actually lost. They lost their only sister. I am our father’s child and they know this truth deep down. They also lost the value of honesty in all of this. I can’t imagine how heavy of a burden that must be to carry for them.
I value the richness of life, not money. And if anyone has a great mockup of Luby’s millionaire pie, please consider sharing it.
Someone Stole Something of Value from Me
In scouring this morning’s news on the interwebs, I stumbled across an image that looked oddly familiar so I did what most curious people do - I clicked on it.
Upon opening and reading the attached story, I realized that it was a blog I had written in the past. My work was plagiarized and I am not completely sure how I feel about this. There was no credit given to me nor the client whom I wrote it for. No backlink. Nothing. Just straight up taken as their own.
As a writer, I pay attention to the world around me. I am inspired by so many things but have never taken someone else’s work and credited it as my own. Hell, I never even copied off someone else’s homework in school nor turned it in with my name on it. I never did this because it is wrong. I am led by my integrity but alas, there are clearly others who are not.
I feel sick. The bottom of my stomach has dropped and feels queasy. Like I just got handed some heavy news. Oh wait, I did. Someone stole something of great value from me - My words. My art. My craft.