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"Daddy, could you move your feet? I need to open the fridge door."

April 14, 2009

"Daddy, could you move your feet? I need to open the fridge door." You know you're poor when your son tells you this, while you're lying down on the floor, to sleep.

Back in 2006, I was living with my then 10-year-old son, in a hostel room that was 12 feet by 8 feet, with common bathrooms down the hall, in South Beach, Florida.

We had a 3-foot-high fridge in the room, my son slept on the bed, I slept on the floor beside him, and sometimes I'd be lying down on the floor for the night, and he would need something in the fridge, and he would say "Daddy, could you move your feet? I need to open the fridge door."

If you look at the video on the home page of one of my other websites http://gameboylearning.com, I shot that video inside that 12 x 8 hostel room with my webcam.

My son and I have always been VERY CLOSE. Literally.
Close as in "Could you get out of my way, I need to get out to go to the bathroom?"

Back in 2006 a typical day for me would be:

"Don't bother us. We're having a party."

I was so poor that it was difficult for me to afford the coffee at the Starbucks. I'd buy one cup at 8AM and make it last all day.

Real estate was BOOMING. The Starbucks was literally buzzing all day with real estate agents meeting with their clients. "Sure we can get you a $450,000 mortgage, that's not even a problem. Don't worry we'll make it work."

I'd sit there and work on my tiny website, and people around me were talking about "condo flipping".

I remember a very attractive woman, a real estate agent, parking her Bentley right in front of the fire hydrant by the Starbucks, and walking inside.

Less than a minute later, a Miami Beach Policeman was standing by her Bentley, writing up a parking ticket, which everyone could see through the giant windows. As the ravishing real estate sultress ran out perched on her high heels to go teach that Police Officer some manners, I remember joking outloud: "YOU CAN'T GIVE ME A TICKET! I'M BEAUTIFUL!!"

At which point all the men inside the Starbucks burst in laughter.

I don't remember any women inside the Starbucks laughing at my joke.

Back in 2006, there was an incredible amount of arrogance in South Beach, as there was in the rest of the country. One of my friends at the Starbucks, Alex, told me at the time "I just bought a condo here in South Beach!"

I said, "Well, I hope you know what you're doing. Things could change in a heart beat around here." Alex looked at me and said in his usual reassuring, confident tone "Marc, that condo is NEVER gonna go down in value. This is South Beach!"

That was three years ago. One year later, by mid-2007, there were signs that the orgy of fraud, corruption and extravagance was coming to an end. Today, I believe that we have a long way to go before Mother Nature has brought balance back into our world.

Earlier this week, I read about how Mohammed Atta was in South Florida 3 days before flying Flight 11 into the North Tower of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.

I read that twelve of the nineteen suspected 9-11 hijackers lived in Florida.

Then I started thinking about how, during the 2000 U.S. elections - while I was busy drinking myself into oblivion, sitting in front of my computer while drinking pure rum by the bottle - the whole country held its breath while ballots were being counted in South Florida, which ultimately resulted in George W. Bush being elected the next President of the United States, with all the unfortunate consequences that resulted from this "process".

I'm not sure what any of this means, or even why I'm writing about it and putting it on my website today, but it seems to me that South Florida is some kind of barometer for the rest of the nation.

I read yesterday that Palm Beach is being severely affected not only by the current economic crisis which all of us are experiencing, but also by what turned out to be a giant ponzi scheme operated for years by Bernard Madoff, who evidently was a character whom a lot of people down in Palm Beach paid attention to.

Apparently a lot of people in Palm Beach are being financially affected by the fraud which "Mr." Madoff perpretrated over more years than anyone cares to remember. The whole "Bernard Madoff fraud" thing is cutting into their lifestyles.

What is your healing topic of interest?

2012 - The year to Be like a little child.
Healing through Women Inheriting the Earth.
Oprah Winfrey discusses her experience with Transcendental Meditation.