My great grandfather stated to me when I was a child "Man will destroy himself in search of wealth and power, but at the end of it he will succumb to nature for no one will ever beat mother nature". I could never understand what he meant by this sentence, but he repeated it to me many times. Now that I am close to 70 I understand the deep meaning of his words. His message to me was to live a simple life of accomplishment trusting only myself and mother nature and treasuring all things that nature put in front of me. For years I thought about his words but never understood the full meaning of his sentence. Now that I have lived, accomplished what I wanted with my own strength and with the help of mother nature and God on my side, I finally get the full meaning of the old man's words. Wisdom comes with age. As young, belligerent people we think we are always right and can change things around us. The older we get, the more life tries us, the more we realize that we are just a peble in the sand and we might as well enjoy ourselves using our own brain resources. We are born with a special gift, that is why we have writers, musicians, fashion designers and so on. We just have to grow old enough to discover our gift and use it to our advantage and happiness. The old American Indians used to say: "Don't judge me until you walked a mile in my shoes". Every old adage had a deep meaning that could only be understood with age. Another good adage was "Money is the root of all evil". True money is a commodity needed to survive but, when people hurt each other, rob from each other, con each other just to acquire wealth and power, then money turns from necessity to evil. Money changes people hearts and destroys compassion and understanding. Money creates materialism, the philosophical opinion that physical matter in its movements and modifications is the only reality and that everything in the universe, including thought, feelings, mind and will, can be explained in terms of physical laws. As George F. Kennan once stated "His thinking was distorted by by the materialism of the time" Materialism can change not only people but a whole society, can create undue regards for the highest value in life, the value of the heart, the soul and the spirit.
Tina C. Hartley, Tina Hartley, Hartley, Alabama, dream villa, historical site, large park, mansion, Millbrook, Montgomery, oasis, owner financing, sale by owner, Southern style
