The Way it Goes

"The rich get rich, and the poor get poorer."

That's a pretty universal conceit. Perhaps even a

physics lesson, I imagine, with the energy behind

loss generating more loss, and vice versa with winning.

Or maybe it's just psychological?

I feel that's more likely. Once a man's deterioration

(or fall from grace) has begun, everything seems to

'magically' sync up to head that same direction,

even exacerbating the process...at least for a time.

The universe is merciless, and 'fate' is blind to all men.

You get what you get, and you get what you're willing

to fight for. But behind magical thinking like

'the meek inheriting the earth' is the reality that

money is very important to all aspects of life.

Once we start losing it, despair and lack of confidence

can start in, distracting and running us down.

No one wants to back a loser, and people fear the

idea of poverty being contagious almost as much as they

fear actual illness. Maybe more.

So rats desert the sinking ship, sending another

message of unworthiness, now weighing still heavier.

Inability to eat out ends several friendships,

ends the social connections that led to more work,

ends the public persona of viability, and so on.

Disparity seems to attract more of the same.

Emotionally, psychologically, financially.

And of course we know the reverse is true.

People knock one another down to get next to

a rich man, hoping to be ingratiated to him and

be granted either reward or similar fate.

Don't make more of it than it is;

at the end of the day, we make our own luck.

And there's plenty to be said for drive,

ingenuity, and fierceness.

"Not giving up" may be the only skill

we ever truly need.

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