Isolated in our Wealth

This week we found out my wife had an aggressive form of breast cancer. I told one neighbor who told two more. We live in a neighborhood with about 30 houses. Guess what, the circle stopped there. A neighbor only 50 yards behind my house didn't find out. Growing up, the circle of knowledge would have spread quickly through our neighborhood. Of course, in the modern world, such news is spread by FB or email.

And of course, their sadness was conveyed to us by email. Some very kind words for sure. My wife has a lot of friends. Some of them called.  Some of them send emails. But, not a single one just dropped in. Some of it is because we moved all over the country chasing money and ended up alone in the middle of nowhere. Some of it is because we no longer know our neighbor because we just moved into the neighborhood and so did they. Some of it is because we work so much to buy so much stuff that we don't have time to enjoy our stuff, much less to get to know our neighborhood. We have been dubbed.

Americans are isolated in their wealth. People in the middle of Africa have more interaction with their neighbors than we do in this country. And we do interact, it is superficial and proper. Very seldom are any serious subjects discussed. It has not always been this way. When I was young, we cared about right and wrong, and politics, and religion and we were not afraid to debate it. And guess what, we didn't offend each other all that much. We wanted to know what was right. Now, we have more wealth, but since the pursuit of truth is not profitable its not on the agenda.