Pat and viktor

After Monday’s long post, which clearly took me hours to put together, my dear Key West friends Pat and Viktor wrote me saying I must have too much time on my hands. Whoa nelly, I wish. If I had plenty of time, I’d be blogging. But the truth is, I have too little time because – drum roll please – I actually have to frickin’ work now. Tell me again why didn’t I marry a rich guy? Love? What a dumb reason to get married.

Anyway, working takes up way too much time. I’m working on website maintenance for a guy, working on my new Costa Rica real estate site, and working on getting tenants for houses in Key West.

Speaking of which, finding new tenants in Key West has become quite the challenge. Florida is losing population for the first time in decades. Seems like most of them are moving out of my properties, too. Over the summer, I’ve had four out of five properties empty. And, for the first time since 1995, I lost two properties just because we couldn’t get a tenant at the rent the owner’s wanted. Both are still empty. Big bummer for all concerned.

The other thing that is still taking up my time is politics. I thought it would be good enough to twitter and FaceBook my political thoughts and ideas so I wouldn’t take up my Costa Rica blog with U.S. politics. But I spend too much time debating buddies over there to have time left for blogging over here. Sigh. Time for Plan B. As soon as I make up a Plan B.

Another place I spend too much time late at night is on those yahoo groups. Like everywhere else it seems, 99% of the other members are liberals. Good practice for not taking anything personally, lemme tell ya. But a friend wrote me today, asking about my weltanschauung*. She said (and I’ve deleted personally identifying data in case you were thinking of stealing her identity):

“One of the things I have experienced spiritually, and continue to experience, is ‘losing’ my affection/love/loyalty/conviction about ideas/plans/things that I once held fast and basic. Something about being in this shifting mix has impacted me and my convictions.

It’s only fair, I ‘spose, that I’d be impacted, since I’ve been a part of – if not pulling the rug out from under, at least shifting the rug – for a number of folks. I realize my whole weltanschauung is in play.  From your posts I know that you’ve mentioned a major shift in your life, too.” [There’s an understatement.]

Wow, I’d never heard of weltanschauung before. What a great word! And what an excellent question. Good questions are too few and far between, if you ask me. Here’s my answer:

“I hear you. I’m there, too. Only, I don’t know what I thought about in college… much of those days are lost in a fog of drinking and smoking pot. I’ve been sober now for 21 years, my spiritual life has grown out of that as opposed to a church.

I don’t think I learned anything other than theatre arts at LC, certainly no book learning. I just wasn’t interested. My political education started in earnest about 10 years ago. My husband is one of those rare souls who remembers everything he’s ever read. He knows how many bullets were fired in every war, why we fought (why we really fought as opposed to what’s in the history books), who was president when, who was king when, the details of the Roman Empire, for God’s sake… Otherwise our household might be devoid of facts other than what Google produces!

My particular weltanschauung has been shaped over the past few years by:

#1 getting sober. That changed me immeasurably so, in effect, it shapes every decision I make. I grew up. I found a spiritual life.

Then #2 becoming a parent. Good grief, that’s hard but changed me in all the good ways.

#3 being married to a Libertarian and really smart guy. There’s an education.

And #4 Discovering just how corrupted our system of government has become, thanks to our friends at the you-know-what. Without going into the sordid details, once a person has been violated and the underbelly of the system exposed for what it is, you can’t go back and pretend anymore. Our government is in serious trouble. When Dino [a guy on the forum] says the lunatics are in charge of the asylum, he couldn’t be more correct. Only he thinks it’s limited to the Republicans.

To me, if you are not at least shifting rugs, you aren’t really doing anything. I’m a rug-shifter from way back.”

me and pen my friend of 25 years 2006 key west abroadincostarica.com

I forgot to mention #5. That would be my friends’ effect on my life. Friends from Key West who are still part of my life. Clients from that life who shared a big part of their lives with me. My new friends here somewhat – there just hasn’t been time for them to affect my weltanschauung  significantly. Blog readers, certainly. You guys don’t hold back. Fellow inmates at all my personal asylums. And my family: as they’ve changed, I’ve changed.

So here’s my question. Maybe I’m asking because I’ll be 54 in four days and being older has certainly made me wiser. Not “wise” per se. Just wiser. Thank goodness something happened after all those years! So, I wanna know: what’s shifted your weltanschauung?

* Pronounced VELT (world) on shau (to look at) oong (German ending that makes this
a noun). You say it like two words: Velt on-SHAU-oong. In case you want to use it in a sentence.

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