Where Your Treasure Is

A Buffett of Inspiration

2010-08-14T11:35:00.000-07:00

It's been a long time since I posted anything of significance on here. I'm not even sure if anyone is still following it as a result, but for those who are, I bring you a treasure trove of inspiration from the world's 2nd richest man: Warren Buffett.

For quite some time now I've been getting increasingly concerned/annoyed/angered by the growing gap between rich and poor in our modern era. We've long since shot past the 80/20 rule, where 80% of the world's wealth is controlled by 20% of the people. Last I'd heard, we'd exceeded the point where 99% of the world's wealth is controlled by 1% of the people! That's simply astounding. When you think of all the millions or billions who live below the poverty line, literally starving to death, it's appalling, and quite frankly down-right immoral, that some 60 million people in the world are sitting on top of more money than they could ever spend in their life times. Even if they tried. Hard.

Of course, before we get too judgmental, it's important to take that dreaded look in the mirror... if you live in Canada and have a well paying job, odds are you yourself (and by "you" I mean "me") are in that top 1% of the world's wealthiest people. If your salary is even around the average in our country, you are likely well into the top 5%. Makes you think twice about your responsibility to share? It does me...

What's disturbing about this isn't so much the distribution. If we were at 99/1 but almost everyone in the world had their basic needs looked after, I wouldn't bat an eye. But we're not, and throughout history, when the rich get too rich and the poor get too poor, society falls apart. We're all born equal, and we all die equal, and the inequities in between can only become so imbalanced before the masses on the wrong side rise up.

During the 2008-2009 world wide government bail-outs of trillions upon trillions of dollars, and now the subsequent (and long predicted) round of possible Sovereign Defaults, I kept wondering: why doesn't the world's governments just seize the wealth of any individual exceeding $1 billion dollars? There's only a few hundred of them, the combined haul would likely equal what it cost to avoid economic armaggedon, and not a one of them would suffer in the slightest for it. Truth be told, everyone of them acquired that wealth from the system which broke down and needed to be fixed anyway. It'd be a quick and just solution. Robin-hood style.

Well, thanks to 2 of the three richest men in the world, Bill (and Melinda) Gates and Warren Buffett, something similar to that is happening all on it's own. These 2 men, well known for their own philanthropy, have been urging other billionaires to increase the amount they give away... and succeeding. They started a movement, thegivingpledge.com, that calls on the world's billionaires to make a pledge to give away 50% or more of their wealth, and many are doing just that. Recognizing the imbalance of wealth distribution in the world, their own luck in having acquired more than their share (through the Ovarian Lottery, as Buffett calls it), and that they couldn't possibly use all that they have anyway, these men and women are starting down a path of historic, unprecedented donations, the size of which will go well into the trillions within our lifetimes. It's a beautiful thing, and gives me, for one, cause for hope that people really are learning from the past and continually working towards a better future. Stumbling in that direction sometimes, but stumbling along none the less.

Anywho, that was my usual, long-winded pre-amble to the truly enjoyable nuggets I really wanted to share. Reading through the pledge that Warren Buffett himself made, to give away a whopping 99% of his wealth, along with an interview he did with CNN when he first made the decision, I came away full, like I had just eaten at a Buffett of Inspiration. If the size of his estate wasn't proof enough that he's a fairly bright guy, these two links below cinch it. From his thoughts on inheritance, and the negative impact it has on children which all parents should read, to gems like this:

a vast collection of possessions ends up possessing its owner - Warren Buffett

they are definitely worth the read. Hope you enjoy them as much as I did.

Buffett's Giving Pledge: http://money.cnn.com/2010/06/15/news/newsmakers/Warren_Buffett_Pledge_Letter.fortune/index.htm

His interview with CNN: http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2006/07/10/8380864/index.htm

Next Stop, Tokyo...

2010-05-12T23:40:00.000-07:00

In case anyone is still following this blog, I've got a new one up for my next trip... starts tomorrow... I should get to bed:

http://gregorygoesdownunder.blogspot.com/

Quote for the day

2010-01-30T06:51:00.000-08:00

Good and evil both increase at compound interest. That is why the little decisions you and I make every day are of such infinite importance. The smallest good act today is the capture of a strategic point from which, a few months later, you may be able to go on to victories you never dreamed of. An apparently trivial indulgence in lust or anger today is the loss of a ridge or railway line or bridghead from which the enemy may launch an attach otherwise impossible.

- C. S. Lewis

One of Those Nights

2010-01-01T23:39:00.001-08:00

May as well get up and do something productive...

Vacation Stress

2009-10-03T06:45:00.000-07:00

A friend just sent me this, and after just coming back from a big vacation, I can vouch for it's accuracy!

Wow

2009-09-28T20:45:00.000-07:00

I just got back from my weekly support group, and I'm on a bit of a cloud right now. In more than 2 years of attending, that was likely the best meeting I've been to. It was pizza night, always a good way to start any meeting, but for us that also means a handful of guys have been asked to share a little about their story. Tonight a "handful" meant 8 or 9. There's something incredibly powerful in hearing a person's real life story, and having that many back to back was quite moving. Through the openness and honesty, the tears and the laughter, the thought that really struck me was, "Wow, there has been a lot of healing going on here."

I wish everyone could have a chance to experience a group like that. There's a sad longing when I think of the guys I know who should but won't, and yet also excitement to know it's there for many who will. A flavorful mix of emotions. I'm going to bed very filled up.

Insights from C.S. Lewis

2009-09-27T08:30:00.000-07:00

I've been (very) slowly working my way through some writings from C.S. Lewis. What I read this morning struck me as incredibly insightful, and very relevant to where I am at in my own struggles right now. I could comment on it, but instead thought I would just share some excerpts and let you get out of it what you may on your own. Bolded parts are my own emphasis. Enjoy!

When a man makes a moral choice two things are involved. One is the act of choosing. The other is the various feelings, impulses and so on which his psychological outfit presents him with, and which are the raw material of his choice... The bad psychological material is not a sin but a disease. It does not need to be repented of, but to be cured... Human beings judge one another by their external actions. God judges them by their moral choices. When a neurotic who has a pathological horror of cats forces himself to pick up a cat for some good reason, it is quite possible that in God's eyes he has shown more courage than a healthy man may have shown in winning the Victorian Cross.

...everytime you make a choice you are turning the central part of you, the part of you that chooses, into something a little different from what it was before. And taking your life as a whole, with all your innumerable choices... you are slowly turning this central thing either into a heavenly creature or into a hellish creature: either into a creature that is in harmony with God, and with other creatures, and with itself, or else into one that is in a state of war and hatred with God, and with its fellow-creatures, and with itself...

One man may be so placed that his anger sheds the blood of thousands, and another so placed that however angry he gets he will only be laughed at. But the little mark on the soul may be much the same in both. Each has done something to himself which, unless he repents, will make it harder for him to keep out of the rage next time he is tempted, and will make the rage worse when he does fall into it. Each of them, if he seriously turns to God, can have that twist in the central man straightened out again: each is, in the long run, doomed if he will not. The bigness or smallness of the thing, seen from the outside, is not what really matters.

When a man is getting better he understands more and more clearly the evil that is still left in him. When a man is getting worse, he understands his own badness less and less. A moderately bad man knows he is not very good: a thoroughly bad man thinks he is all right. This is common sense... You can see mistakes in arithmetic when your mind is working properly: while you are making them you cannot see them. You can understand the nature of drunkenness when you are sober, not when you are drunk.

Bon Voyage!

2009-07-23T08:36:00.000-07:00

Between out-of-town guests, my second plunge-to-the-earth-from-a-plane, and my first should-be-portaging-but-instead-I'm-still-in-the-raft white-water trip through Yoho, I haven't been around much lately. My apologies for not keeping in touch better with y'all.

Unfortunately, I'm going to be around even less for the next while. I leave tomorrow on a 5 week trip through Europe and Russia! I'll be back in September. :)

If you want to follow along, I've setup a blog to track my sojourn over here.

If I survive, I'll see you in the fall!

cheers,
Greg

Do You Want To Get Well?

2009-03-25T22:16:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday, I took my nephew Ethan to the Science Center. We had joy, we had fun, we had seasons in the... well, you know. But it didn't really matter what we were doing, I was just happy to be spending time with him. I love this little guy.

Good looking kid, eh? He gets that from his uncle. :)

What I don't love is that it seems to be cold and flu season in Calgary. An afternoon spent in an enclosed building full of hands-on exhibits and jam-packed with germ-infested rug-rats and ankle-biters is pretty much a fool proof plan for catching something.

And so I did.

It was a doozy too. I woke up Sunday morning feeling fine, but my nose was running. By late afternoon I was coughing so bad that I started tasting blood from whatever poor organ in my throat was taking the brunt of that punishment. By Sunday night I was burning up and nauseous. Monday morning brought severe headaches and stiffness to complete the ensemble. It was by far the sickest I've been in years. Unable to do anything, including lie down to sleep, I just sat and watched the clock tick slowly forward, wondering how I long I could endure this, and kind of hoping the fever would get bad enough that I'd pass out and not wake up until it was over.

Fast forward to today, and I'm back on the mend finally. Still coughing like a banshee in the mornings, but feeling like life is worth living again at least. I should be well enough to head back to work tomorrow, but after 4 days of lazing around, the thought of going back to work isn't very appealing. There's a part of me that wants to wake up tomorrow just sick enough to be able to stay home again one more day.

How exactly did I go from being so sick I wanted to die, to wishing I could just stay sick? Isn't that, well, sick? Yes, yes it is. Yet I think it's a very common mentality. Let me explain in my usual fashion... i.e. with far too many words. :)

Getting to the Point... Eventually

Here a great number of disabled people used to lie - the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, "Do you want to get well?" - John 5:3-6

Do you want to get well?

What kind of question is that?!?! The guy's been crippled for 38 years, living on scraps, barely even existing. Of course he wants to get well.

Doesn't he?

Well, here's an interesting take on that from one of the many self-help books I've been reading of late:

The invalid had to think it over. His whole identity was wrapped up in being crippled. Everybody knew him and came by and said, "Hi Joe," and Joe didn't have to work, didn't have to take on any responsibilities. He was a cripple, but he was in control of his life.

Jesus knew that if the invalid by the pool took him up on his offer to heal him, he'd have a whole new life. Once healed, we can't complain in self-pity anymore or tell other people it's their fault that we are not fulfilling our potential or being happy.

Hmmm... maybe that's not such a simple question afterall.

When you've been sick long enough that the condition becomes a part of your identity, getting well means you're going to lose a part of who you thought you were. Your entire way of thinking and behaving has to change. Maybe you're shy, or forgetful, or angry, or controlling, or judgmental, or anxious, or lazy. Pick your poison. As unpleasant as that "illness" is, if you've learned to function with it for so long that it's really all you know, whatever pain it's causing can be less frightening than the thought of trying to get through life without it and the ready-made excuses and escapes it provides.

So Jesus has to ask the question. He won't just take it away unless you're ready to give it up.

Things usually have to get pretty bad before we're willing to do something different. For some sad reason, we have to end up like the crippled man lieing on the ground before we'll say "yes!" The saving grace is though (and grace definitely is the key) that once life's been that bad, it can finally get really good.

I speak with some experience on this. A tad more than I wish I had. Those who know me know that I'm dealing with a pretty difficult personal situation right now which, quite frankly, is my own dang fault. I was one very unhealthy puppy for a very long time. And for the longest time, I didn't want to get well. I thought I did, but my behaviour clearly said otherwise. If not for certain people that God brought into my life, my wife Phoebe foremost among them, I wouldn't have been forced to deal with my illness. It's only now when I'm getting healthy that I can see how insane I really was, and how many areas of my life it was affecting. And how many other areas I still, and always will, need to work on.

Living healthy is always more work. But it is so worth it.

(Choosing) A Different Ending

Ever said something like "I guess it's a problem, but it's not that big of a deal. Every guy/girl/parent/couple/family/church/etc has issues like this, right?" Um... denial ain't just a river in Egypt. Those "problems," common as they may be, are still "problems," aren't they?

You don't have to keep accepting them as-is. I believe that not a single day goes by with out God asking us, "Do you want to get well?"

Next time you catch a glimpse of what's really wrong in your life, hear the question, and take time to really answer it. Don't bother with the Sunday-school "yes" answer, you'll get a lot further with an honest "no, not yet.” There will always be another chance tomorrow, God's funny that way. But really, why wait? Do you really need the pain to become crippling first?

On a quest for good health, and hoping to share that desire,

Greg

Happy Halloween!

2008-10-28T18:33:00.000-07:00

If you completely understand this video, you are far smarter than I am.

That said, I got the gist of it, and it may well be the scariest movie I've seen in a long time. If you are brave enough to learn about where money comes from, grab some popcorn and get comfortable for this year's Halloween Horror Show (because the stock market isn't scary enough! :)

cheers,
Greg

Free Falling, ya, I'm... Free Falling...

2008-10-10T08:03:00.000-07:00

Be perfect, therefore...

2008-10-04T06:38:00.000-07:00

There is nothing quite like trying to live up to an unnatural standard to make you realize how powerless you are and how much you need help to do that. Of course people in our society, even in our churches, don't need "God". We've come to choose a version of ourselves and our lives that's natural and easy to reach on our own. Instead of 'perfect', we're content with 'good enough'.

I was doing just fine, thank-you, when all I wanted in life was what I already had or might get by trying. But when I dream big, when I aim for a life that is beyond my own limitations, I realize how broken I really am. When I turn off the TV, unplug the computer, and listen to the true desires of my heart, I see where I fall short and really do need "God" after all.

That's just where I'm at today. I wonder if we'd all be there if we really knew what our hearts desired in life, and tried to reach for it.

Greg

PS. no, the true desire of your heart is not a big screen TV.

PPS. no, it's not a boat either.

PPPS. here's an example... try living through this and not falling apart... are you, like me, scratching your head and wondering how it can be done?

So little time...

2008-09-27T07:55:00.001-07:00

There's an awful lot going on in this over-sized, egg-shaped head of mine these days. I wish I had time to write it all, but it will have to trickle out in due time instead.

This thought was worth taking a couple minutes to serve up though. If you have 6 minutes and 9 seconds to spare, it's worth taking the time to consume:

The Father's Love Letter

Greg

(This message has been brought to you by some other guy far more poetic than I)

There Your Heart Will Be Also

2008-07-17T14:12:00.000-07:00

I just listed some items on ebay for the first time. My old computer. My wife's wedding dress. And the creme-de-la-creme, an original Nintendo that still works!

If it all sells, we'll collect a cool 8-10 World-Vision-Kid-Months.

Thing is, I don't care about the money. It's nice to get, but I don't need it. What I really wanted to do was get-rid-of-stuff. Stuff and I have a love-hate relationship. Every time I've cleaned my room since I was a little kid, I've tossed out a ton of stuff. Couldn't wait to get rid of it. But somehow, every time I cleaned out my room, I'd find another ton of stuff to get rid of. Apparently I couldn't wait to collect it either.

Recently, Phoebe and I have been cleaning out our too-small condo in preparation to sell it and move to a less-small condo. Or house. Or island. Haven't decided yet.

In the process, we have purged as much stuff as we could, probably almost half of what we had. All of a sudden our too-small condo feels big-enough. There's room to move.

There's room to live.

I can't describe how freeing it feels. The less stuff we have, the less we feel tied down by it. I've been thinking about this a lot lately. Hence the title of my blog.

For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

Matthew 6:21

Phoebe's parents have inspired us in this. When they retired, they downsized. Big Time. They went from a big house in the 'burbs to a small condo downtown. They keep the condo fully furnished, but they are able to pack all their personal items in a couple small suitcases and vacate it in minutes. Now they travel the world, staying in places like Rome, Milan, and Dublin for months at a time, all paid for by renting out their condo back "home." There's no accumulated treasure tying their hearts down.

The rest of us have a lot of stuff, constantly feeling weighed down by it. Never able to leave for very long, always worried something will happen to it if we aren't there to care for it. I can even feel my heart's attachment to my treasures sometimes. Today, I couldn't quite bring myself to sell the golf clubs I haven't used in 2 years.

How much stuff do we have? In the US alone, storage is a $13,000,000,000/year industry. I pay $10/month for a second storage unit to keep my "treasures." You know, the treasures that are sitting in the parkade, collecting dust, rarely seen by the human eye. Stuff that someone else could probably use. Most that probably never should have been produced.

Every year, our church has a garage sale to raise funds for our teen ministries. They are off in Mexico right now with the help of those funds. It's fantastic. But isn't it also a little sad that one church can donate $4000 worth of unwanted stuff every year? If we didn't keep buying that much stuff, we'd probably save $20,000 of cash every year that we could just give to the kids instead.

We have so much stuff now that I think it's taken over our room to live. Or maybe it's just me. Perhaps I'm the only one who feels like I spend all my time trying to earn enough money to buy all the stuff I want. Maybe no one else feels like they don't have enough time for the people in their lives because they are to busy maintaining the house, servicing the car, cleaning the dishes, taking out the garbage, paying the bills for the phones and TVs...

It's our dream to one day be rid of all our stuff. As a young couple considering taking the big plunge, we know that's not going to happen soon. But it is our intent (and good idears like this should help).

Imagine a life where all your "treasure" could fit in a back pack and you could go anywhere, anytime. Close your eyes and dream of a life where the only treasures your heart was bound to were your family, your friends, your church, and your God.

Feel scary? Or liberating?

If you've still got a few minutes, and you might also enjoy watching this:

Ah, the Golden Arrow of Consumption. About as good for us as the Golden Arches.

Greg

I was thirsty, and you...

2008-07-04T13:26:00.000-07:00

I just got my carpets professionally steam cleaned. It cost me about 7 World-Vision-Kid-Months. It's a troubling thing that in our society we can justify spending money to make our carpets look nicer over providing basic essentials to a child who has none. But we're trying to get our condo cleaned up for selling, so in reality, it was a necessary evil. I guess I could have tried putting pictures of sponsored children over the stains and told prospective buyers "this is what I did with the money instead." In the current Calgary market though, I don't think that would help us get-it-sold.

As interesting as I'm sure my carpet cleaning story is to you though, what I really wanted to talk about was what happened after. Carpet-cleaning guy came downstairs after he finished, literally soaked with sweat. Apparently manual labor involving piping-hot steam on a summer day can do that to a fellow.

I thought, "I should offer this guy a drink."

Then I thought, "But I'm going to have to sit here and talk with him, and I don't feel like it."

Funny how something as simple as giving someone a glass of water can be so difficult to do. It's not like we have to walk a couple miles to draw water from a well. But having to stop for a few minutes and interact with a stranger is so, well, uncomfortable. I'd rather just sit all by my lonesome. We exist in a society that drives us to isolate so much that, in spite of our basic need for relationships, we're more comfortable being alone. It's lonely. Sad. But safe. Reminds me of a line from one of my all-time favorite movies:

In any real city, you walk, you know? You brush past people, people bump into you. In L.A., nobody touches you. We're always behind this metal and glass. I think we miss that touch so much, that we crash into each other, just so we can feel something.

A couple months ago, Phoebe and I were walking home from the gym when we passed a homeless man who asked for a drink of water. I was carrying a half empty disposable bottle (as opposed to my usual security blanket, er, I mean carcinogenic, er, Nalgene bottle). But I quickly said "No" and walked right past him like I always do.

Fortunately, 10 steps later I realized how stupid that was. Jesus' words suddenly slapped me in the face so hard I could feel it:

I was thirsty, and you gave me something to drink - Matthew 25:35

I was already well hydrated. And I was literally a block from my home, where there was water-a-plenty to be had from the tap. Cold. Clean. With a Brita-filter on top. I probably wasn't even going to finish drinking that bottle before I poured it down the sink and took it to the recycling bin. I may have even been too lazy for that and just thrown it in the trash. This guy on the other hand was probably parched. Just finding a drink of water was hard for him. He didn't have access to a kitchen, fridge, garden hose, or even a bathroom sink.

Realizing the error of my ways, I turned around, ran back, handed him the bottle and a sheepish smile. He blessed me gratefully, and I returned to my walk home, undoubtedly more grateful for the exchange than even he was. Something so simple. I'm ashamed I didn't react that way instinctively.

Back to today. I bit the bullet and mustered up the social courage to offer carpet guy a drink. He accepted gratefully. We made small talk about weekend plans and Tiger Woods. He took my money. I've had better interactions :)

But it was something so simple. I even went the extra mile and gave him juice instead of just water. It was really watered down though. Does that still count?