Jaws

There was a fatal great white shark attack in California a few days ago. Meanwhile, there's a free-for-all shark feeding on the newspapers of this country. They are losing readers faster than a balding man loses his hair. Click on the word "Jaws" at the top of this post for a sense of how bad the situation has become.

What I am trying to do at the moment is to convert whatever skill I may have as a writer and a story-teller into some sort of business. Most of my adult life, the only practical choice was to find an employer who would pay me enough to get by.

As I became more successful, the options included finding employers who could help me not only support my family but save some money. Last night, I was talking with a young Latino guy working in a corner market near here. He was wearing his baseball cap backwards, and an over-sized white tee-shirt and saggy black jeans.

He was impressed when my youngest son pulled out his wallet, thick with birthday cash and babysitting revenue, to help pay for the treats we were buying. He told me that his little brother (aged 19) is also a saver, but that he himself is a spender. "I see something I want and I have to buy it. My brother, he just saves whatever money he gets and he is ten times richer than I am."

Like this guy's brother, I'm a saver by nature. I've probably got a few thousand pennies in a bag somewhere, not that that is wealth.

But I've also squirreled away whatever excess I could generate annually all of my adult life. The other key to surviving bad times is cutting expenses, which I know how to do, thanks to my Scottish grandparents, my Depression-era parents, and my own frugal nature.

When nothing much is coming in, nothing ought to go out: That's my philosophy.

When the money starts flowing again, that might be a time for some travel, a few movies, some nights eating out. I can't really identify with my fellow citizens who keep living at a high standard when their income bumps down into a lower level.

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