BLING IS NOT WORTH IT

  I wrote this 
  six years ago.  
http://nocryingatmyfuneral.blogspot.com/2006/06/open-letter-to-parents-children-and.html 


I just reread it.  I knew I was right when I wrote it. I'm now very sure that I was right.  If it is possible, more right now than I was then. I should perhaps have entitled it, "If it doesn't insure your future, don't do it."



I know that it is strange when you wake up one morning and realize that thoughts that you had growing up make more sense than ever 50 years later.  Over the last few years I have been spending a lot of time in the Bible.  Now that is a little strange for a Catholic, I know.  But the one thing that has constantly grabbed me and will not let go is the recurring theme that the thoughts that were written 4,000 years ago about human behavior are the same today.  
THE SAME.  
"Why do you spend money for that which is not bread?" (Isaiah 55;2)
"You ask and do not receive because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasure." (James 4;3)
"Go your way.  Sell all that you have, give the proceeds to the poor, then come and follow me." (Mark 10;21)


It is hard to accept that we are in the same mindset about how to manage our financial affairs.  Our expectations about the power that money has to make us happy haven't changed either.  Money buys us a quick drink, a round on the dance floor a headache in the morning and a grouchy spouse.  That's a great return on investment.  It has ever been thus.  
So, my thought for today is already before you.  If you want to see what I wrote six years ago in the very first blog post that I created in my entire life, click on it and have fun.  Then offer a prayer for the couple for whom someone spent a fortune.  They need God, because the bling didn't work.