Money is a universally accepted fiction or 2+2= anything you want, if you can dictate the value of 2

Not believing in money confuses people, but I wonder how people believe. Yes it is clear that that we all have to use it but believe?

   See if two people can and do the same exact same work but receive different amounts of money, then work is not the key element.  And if two people can buy the same object for two different prices with the possibility of one of the prices being something other than money, then it clear that money is not the key to getting the object.  

Is money a surrogate for barter?  In a barter system the bargaining power of all the players is crucially important.  In 2006 a man traded a red paperclip for a fish shaped pen then thirteen trades later  for a house. a lot of value sure came from somewhere.

money is interesting and convenient but really nothing more than a way to turn bargaining skill into an easily transacted commodity.

In other words money is a representation of bargaining skill or power.  Work, skill, time, looks, things, even ideas can all be used as bargaining chits but really all of the value is determined by the people making the deals.  Nothing has any value except in relationship to something else.  That reckoning of value is controlled by the player with the most skill.  This applies to everything relating to money.

 

oatmeal

steam rising from oatmeal trailing my topless car, passing honda with ice on the inside. 

both sorry for the other and I have oatmeal to warm my hands and the world around me

more comfort

sitting in Village Inn not ordering cherry pie and coffee but turkey and gravy.  Bus Boy trying so hard but his 45 degree off center hat does not counter the message he is screaming, it would be easy to laugh, his posture says he is used to it, maybe not used to it.

Ok I'm ordering pie... for the cold... with cream

ln a cottonwood

Snow and ice on ladder steps is forcing me to the ground.  It's still not cold while sleeping thanks to Farmers sleeping bag.  

I met a man in New York who liked to sleep on construction site scaffolding, no one looked up, the cottonwood affords the same conspicuous hiding.

he had to get down before work crews arrived, I just like to avoid neighbors .

but what is better then getting above it all and sleeping.

The Drunken Monkey and the Inner Dog

If people are animals why are we so different? I mean really, we make airplanes and watches.  

Something happened long ago, we developed the ability to think separately from our instincts, we got really good at it and language which came along for the ride made it so we could easily keep our innovations generationally.  

But really we were still just animals that could do lots of tricks.  And one of the biggest tricks was to begin to set up systems, which some call culture,  and these systems sometimes made up rules that tried to take the place of instinct... the the silly part is that we still have the animal inside.

Humans aren't really all that fast on foot, and look at your hands and feet, lousy claws, and try to smell for the deer behind that tree, yea can't do it.  Now there are lots of things we do really well, but in order to be the predators that we became we needed help, cue mans best friend... yea dogs were right there from the start, great match synergy even.  But see we started to talk and then thought we were better and started thinking of dogs as pets rather than co-workers.

We started wearing fancy clothes and making fire, and forgetting that we were a lot like dogs and our dog nature got hidden inside and forgotten about.  But the inner dog didn't forget about us.  

Most of the time the inner dog runs the show, we just don't realize it.  It's hard, nearly impossible to see some things that are so close... strange.

The part of us that we can see, the language part, the part in our head that we can hear and communicate with, the trained monkey that does great tricks, really is just drunk with power, thinking that since it can talk and make wheels and fire, it thinks it is in control of what the rest of the animal does.

The inner dog, like all dogs just has a few needs, food sex and play.  It does everything to get those things.  The drunken monkey on the other hand thinks that it is rational and can control what it needs and wants, makes fake rules, comes up with strange excuses and explanations as to why why it does what it does.  But really often the inner dog just want to 

hump that girl or boy (inner) dog.  

The drunken monkey does have some control... but so does the inner dog