Where do titles for blogs come from? For me they happen in an instant as I write but sometimes they get handed to me with drum rolls. That's what happened today at noon.
I was talking to Andy on his lunch hour. He was telling me about a co-worker who had just returned from a trip with his wife to a Mexican swanky resort. Apparently one night at dinner they were paired with a California couple who lived a few stories higher on the food chain than Andy's co-worker. (It must have been a sweaty dinner for this guy who is a salesman for welding equipment in southern Wisconsin.) Anyway, the California wife told the Wisconsin couple that she worked for a handbag store on Rodeo Drive. (Sir Elton John is a frequent customer of theirs.) She chortled that the handbags begin in price at $50,000.00. Yes, I got the decimal in the correct place. Those are the lower priced designer bags, some go all the way up to $200,000.00. No, you say. Yes!
Andy and I exchanged peels of laughter over the phone. We had just spent Sunday detailing every last item in our apartment and what it would sell for at a garage sale for a legal proceeding that involves getting out from under debt and saving what we can before retirement. We couldn't stop laughing over $50,000 - $200,000 handbags. How ludicrous! How absurd! How awful. That isn't Common Person life. I had to ask myself when I hung up - and we are being asked in Wisconsin to accept the end of collective bargaining, to hand over Badger Care & Senior Care, to stand quietly and watch as corporations rape and pillage our lives? All so somebody can jet out to Rodeo Drive and purchase a $50,000 handbag?
I sat down at the computer after my own lunch and found this advertisement. Andy had a gift subscription to Cruising World years ago. I still get emails from them. This one seemed to be the answer to why you'd need that $50,000 handbag!
Fully-equipped monohulls currently available for purchase in the Caribbean with low down payments*:
2 Cabins / 1 Head $25,800 down
3 Cabins / 2 Heads $32,800 down
3 Cabins / 3 Heads $37,800 down
5 Cabins / 5 Heads $55,800 down
The operative word here is DOWN. That amount of money is only the beginning. And here was I running from room to room - all 5 of them - to make sure I hadn't missed anything on the list and struggling to write down a fair garage sale price for our things. Still, I'm positive you'd need a new handbag to step on to your yacht. There's a place on Rodeo Dr. you can find some great little items for a song.
I forwarded Andy the Cruising World offer. He responded with my title - "Well, if you can't afford the yacht, perhaps you can sail away in your handbag!"
Once upon a time I was accused, by someone who was posing as a friend, of being anti-wealthy person. He told me I was prejudiced against people with money and that I had no idea how philanthropic many of those folks were. He wasn't among them but was constantly focused on becoming one of them. He coveted their power and freedom through money. Maybe he was correct. Maybe I have a prejudicial attitude about the very wealthy. I understand that many people with vast amounts of money donate lots of it to charities and good works. That's great, I'm glad they do. But I have seen the other side of wealth and power and it isn't just about the obscene price tags on handbags. When I think about what has happened to The Common People in Wisconsin these past many weeks I know it is a battle between the astronomical wealth of the Koch Boys and The Common People who are teachers, nurses, social workers and street crews. Those folks don't make enough to shop at the $50,000 handbag store.
My hair dresser charges $27.00 for a wash, cut and style. We understand each other. We're from the same strata with the same frame of reference for things. When I tell her about the handbags on Rodeo Drive, she's going to fall over. She complimented me on my own handbag last time I was in - a darling number from Target on sale for $24.99. She'll get it. We'll talk about the behavior of the wealthy, everyone has stories. And underneath I will remember the women who started a blouse co-operative in Mexico - not that far away from the swanky resort - to feed their children. And the teachers in Wisconsin who are losing their jobs this summer. And the men who plowed our 16" snowfalls this past winter. On a day when we remember those who have died for fashion and greed, this perversion of wealth is truly terrible.
Choices matter whether they are about how much to spend on a purse or who we vote for and support. I don't think my heart would allow me to spend $50,000 on a purse. I hope my Common handbag doesn't spring any leaks when I sail away!
Power To All The People!
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