Entitled

This is going to make some of you mad. But, I am mad.

Whatever happened to working for a living?

There's this whole gang/group of people out there with the singular goal of working the system. They need food stamps, they need school lunch programs, they need disability. They need help.

I met a young man today, one of 10 children, whose mother is taking the majority of his paycheck. She has addictions and is working the system.

I met another who told me her sister can't work because if she stands too long or sits too long, her joints hurt. Well, guess what? If you're over 40, you probably have some joints that hurt.

Many of us feel entitled to Social Security but honestly, that plan is on the bubble. And the truth is, we probably paid less in than we feel we are entitled to receive.

Is there an answer? I don't know. But I know for sure that I am sick and tired of helping a whole group of people who work the system.

On the other hand, I would give a kidney to someone who needs it. I'm not heartless -- just a little jaded.

Alone Time

I crave alone time. And God's joke on me is that I live with the most social man ever put on the planet.

Alone time allows me to breathe, to pray, to make lists and to listen to my soul. Alone time heals me.

Yesterday I took a couple of hours off work to do personal stuff. Catch up. Walk the dog, send some cards. Dan came home to pick up some stuff he had forgotten. Alone bubble busted.

There's a balance we all strive to find. Socially engaging/work engaging/private time. I spend a big chunk of my week with a smile on my face and a story to tell. It's rude, but I often come home with the silent message of, "I'm tired and I don't want to talk." How awful is that?

Doing the voyeur thing, I often wonder about retired people. How do they do it? Do they enjoy spending 24/7 with each other? In my voyeur experience, I can tell you the answer is no. One of them is always wishing the other would get out of their hair.

But, I'm on the young end of the Baby Boomer generation. One perk is I'll never know about retirement because we will be the ones who can't afford to retire. I will work until I can't work anymore. If I get really successful, I will have a room to myself and I will occasionally channel Greta Garbo,

"I want to be alone."

But just for a while ....