Citizen
January 3rd, 2014, 07:20 PM
All right first time out with the training wheels on. Chances are punctuation and grammar are terrible but please point it out. Looking for what you think and since my ego is fragile I am wearing my extra thick skin today. Just be honest.
A Midnight ride down Rock Bottom Road
by Citizen
I gave my last cigarette to him. He took a long draw from it and the tip looked like a beacon in the night. The smoke floated lazily in the still air.
"I appreciate the smoke, friend. It has been a few weeks since I have had ten cents in my pocket and as you can see I am not independently wealthy."
"Well, wealth is more a state of mind than a state of being and it is very over rated." I said dryly.
"Of course." said the man, "I have known wealthy people in my old world who were bankrupt and had millions of dollars in their accounts and poor folks with no money but had wealth more valuable than the riches of kings." He shook his head, "Poor souls. They will come to the end of their days and know nothing of true wealth."
"What is true wealth?" My curiousity was getting the best of me.
"Friend." He inhaled deeply, "Friend, that is the question men have asked to themselves since the time of Adam but I know you have that answer already.
"I do?"
"Yep." "All junk is dumped at the side of Rock Bottom Road if a man is true to hisself, if he is honest with hisself." My truth was painful and I was a rotten SOB. No man could stand in my way. I was driven. I had everything! I wanted to see everything. Do, be, want! Everything! Or so I thought.
Times got tough but I didn't see it coming towards me. My arrogance drove away good people. My anger grew and grew and more people walked. I had to cut back, then I had to sell off. I needed money. I wanted money but it was only squeezing past my fingers the tighter I gripped them. Then the end came and everything was gone.
No home. No family. No money. Just the clothes on my back, this pack full of old odds and ends, and a second pair of worn out shoes."
"I know all about the no home and money stuff." adding my two cents.
"I suppose you do," came the reply, "but how did you come to this stretch of the road since we are both standing here in the dark?"
"My story is the same as yours just a whole lot less money is involved." "My life ended two years ago last month."
"So." asked the owner of my last smoke as he took the final draw, "What wealth have you discovered in those two years?"
"I used to walk fast to get from place to place, from one meeting to the next but found out here in the land that the slower you walk the more you see. Wealth is around us all. It is the entire palette of every thing in motion. The world does not care if you are angry nor does it care if you ignore it because we all come to it in our own days." Nature's money is the wealth that is worth more than any inferior trifle we can create and gives us riches that can not be measured.
"Exactly."
We shook hands and he stepped off down Rock Bottom Road into the darkness.
A Midnight ride down Rock Bottom Road
by Citizen
I gave my last cigarette to him. He took a long draw from it and the tip looked like a beacon in the night. The smoke floated lazily in the still air.
"I appreciate the smoke, friend. It has been a few weeks since I have had ten cents in my pocket and as you can see I am not independently wealthy."
"Well, wealth is more a state of mind than a state of being and it is very over rated." I said dryly.
"Of course." said the man, "I have known wealthy people in my old world who were bankrupt and had millions of dollars in their accounts and poor folks with no money but had wealth more valuable than the riches of kings." He shook his head, "Poor souls. They will come to the end of their days and know nothing of true wealth."
"What is true wealth?" My curiousity was getting the best of me.
"Friend." He inhaled deeply, "Friend, that is the question men have asked to themselves since the time of Adam but I know you have that answer already.
"I do?"
"Yep." "All junk is dumped at the side of Rock Bottom Road if a man is true to hisself, if he is honest with hisself." My truth was painful and I was a rotten SOB. No man could stand in my way. I was driven. I had everything! I wanted to see everything. Do, be, want! Everything! Or so I thought.
Times got tough but I didn't see it coming towards me. My arrogance drove away good people. My anger grew and grew and more people walked. I had to cut back, then I had to sell off. I needed money. I wanted money but it was only squeezing past my fingers the tighter I gripped them. Then the end came and everything was gone.
No home. No family. No money. Just the clothes on my back, this pack full of old odds and ends, and a second pair of worn out shoes."
"I know all about the no home and money stuff." adding my two cents.
"I suppose you do," came the reply, "but how did you come to this stretch of the road since we are both standing here in the dark?"
"My story is the same as yours just a whole lot less money is involved." "My life ended two years ago last month."
"So." asked the owner of my last smoke as he took the final draw, "What wealth have you discovered in those two years?"
"I used to walk fast to get from place to place, from one meeting to the next but found out here in the land that the slower you walk the more you see. Wealth is around us all. It is the entire palette of every thing in motion. The world does not care if you are angry nor does it care if you ignore it because we all come to it in our own days." Nature's money is the wealth that is worth more than any inferior trifle we can create and gives us riches that can not be measured.
"Exactly."
We shook hands and he stepped off down Rock Bottom Road into the darkness.