two months ago....

Went to a catered dinner at my uncle's house for his birthday a couple of nights ago. My grandfather wanted everyone to tell a story about my uncle. And nobody had stories from more recently than 30 years ago. He spends all of his time working and I've never spent longer than a couple of hours with him at at time. Nobody even knows him. And I'm writing about this on blog, because our superficial relationship is linked to an obsession with money and success. He's achieved both, but has no deep relationships with anyone in his family.

He got so excited that his bank had sent him a fancy bottle of wine for his birthday, that I almost felt bad for the guy. It's like the deeper he got into work and into prestige and perfection, the shallower he got in his ability to connect with the people around him. He's got so much money and so little joy in his life.

And I'm not saying that people should feel bad for this poor rich guy or that people from poorer families necessarily have deeper connections. All I know is that
in my family, theres an illusion that we're all really close and really good friends, but funny stories from 30 years ago, is that really enough to make you close?

I'm back

So I just got back from Nicaragua. I promised the people in Lagartillo that I would fundraise to buy them a truck. There are 800 people in the area and not one car. A couple years back a little girl died of asthma, because there was no car and they had to wait for the bus to come the next day.

Then a couple of days ago, my richyrich uncle told me that I could use their extra car to drive around while I'm in Miami. Yes, his extra car, a Jeep that he bought during a midlife crisis.

What a fucked up world! I'm trying to find money for 800 people to use one car and this dude's got two! I'm totally benefiting from the system, as I blast the radio in my trendy Jeep to go places close enough to bike ride. The other day, I was eating lunch with my family and my step grandmother's sister said, in reference to a leftist candidate being elected in Nicaragua, "Poor people need to stop hoping so much." And she finished her fancy salad and bottled water and drove her Lexus back to Boca Raton.