Yesterday was interesting. Before I got old interesting seemed interesting. I now run from interesting with all the turtle speed I can muster.

The day started with the discovery of a break-in that occurred sometime in the night. What were they thinking? Do they have a sense of great self-importance? Do they feel an entitlement to someone else’s stuff? Is this how the customers who vow to pay and then bow out of their self created obligation justify their action?

Along with extreme self-importance do they feel like meaningless ghosts with no connection to the rest of us? Do they feel so light that they make no waves? Do they feel no connection to the locks, guards and sullen suspicious folk that mar their happiness? Do they leave their gains in quiet restful pools, or does it run from them like water down a mountainside?

Soon after this development a very control minded (but skillful) supplier, uneasy with our freethinking culture descended on me unannounced. He seemed like a prideful angel of mercenary values cursing me for neglecting his dollars. I am as chalk screeching on a black board to him.

Should we resist people who are helping us make money? Some people, “fight for the right to party”, others might fight for the right to order a container of tape, or process an abrasives order on Sunday afternoon.

Does either party have additional responsibilities? Fighting for the right not to fight might be one. Someone with very little money, but very famous anyhow, once said something that my former combat infantry self finds very threatening and scary, “but I tell you not to resist an evil person. But whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also”. Does that mean that violence is not approved of? Would not that take faith and courage beyond the reach of almost anyone over 5’1” tall and not named Mohandas, or who was not a King?

It is probably okay to fight for freedom of religion by letting others practice their beliefs. It might be okay to fight for the right to vote by voting. We can fight for free speech by listening as well as speaking I guess. What about bricks at 30 paces? What about nuclear weapons? How cool is James Bond really? What would Mohandas say? Why do purveyors of stuff seeming to possess no non-monetary thought in their head plague me with ideals nearly dead on arrival 2,000 years ago and as crazy and impossible as an Internet? Burglars seem comparatively tame.

What little I know. I know our Hillas Packaging Family is not bonded by blood. You must bond it by ideas that extend beyond just making money. To work this hard, to dedicate our lives, to nothing of any spiritual consequence is too ugly to consider. Our unearned freedom is wonderful, effective and powerful. It will always be a great friend if we allow ourselves to be worthy of it. If we have faith in our ideals of fair play, honesty and do not give in to fear, greed, blaming, lies and corruption we will be okay today and tomorrow too.