FredL

Jim Stone raises an interesting point: Keeping the "Schmaltze" out of bonsai. In all fairness, a point not without merit.

The last few months, I have turned my talents as an investor to the world of real estate. I will soon be working on my 5th deal, and I appear to definitely be making money om my first four. Believe me, I do not romanticize the properties I evaluate and I do not involve myself with anything that I can not make a profit on. In negotiating for properties and with prospective tennants, I am all in favor of creating "win/win" situations, but I am very clear that I can not make a deal unless there is a profit in it for me.

I guess it's fair to say that I do not allow "schmaltziness" to enter into my business dealings in even the slightest way. I suppose it's fair to say, I know the price of everything and care little for its "value", whatever that means.

And yet.....

I have read that among the American Indians, one of the criticisms that they leveled against the European settlers was that the settlers inhabited a world that was "dead". When I walk through the woods, an activity that always revives my spirits and lifts my mood, and contrast that with the feelings that a couple of hours of computer games leaves me with, I feel that I understand what they were talking about. Perhaps this is a clue to my irredeemable "smaltziness", but when I walk through even a small wooded tract, I feel the "aliveness" that I think the American Indians of olden times felt.

Similarly, when I spend an hour with my little trees, I feel their life and the life in the world around me. They don't have to be magnificent works of art for this to occur; I can feel that each of them, if cared for properly, may, in the fullness of its own time, become a magnificent work of art. This potential exists within it from its beginning and I can feel it. And I can feel the incredible unique value that each tree has, magnificent work of art or no.

I have alluded to this split in my character in the past. I do not choose one mode of being and perception as correct. But I also do not choose to belittle either mode as inferior and properly rejected.

Best regards, Fred