How about this for a little ditty?
(Repeat a few times.)
Life… is… very
tem-por-ary
So true.
Our current-day “geniuses,” our heroes, those we “celebrate” in these strange times?
They are men who create massive online retail, software, social media sites, or means of online payment.
Money, money, and more money, veritable barrels—tons—of it.
Actual trillions in the hands of a very few.
Tens of billions—in single bank accounts.
(Let us remember that a billion is a thousand millions. The richest man in the world counts a third of a trillion.)
If one must name a few of them: Zuckerberg, Gates, Bezos, Musk, Google.
Sometimes–frankly–there is an extraterrestrial countenance to them.
Bezos has used his money for things like a yacht so huge, they had to dismantle a monumental bridge in Europe (Rotterdam) so it could get downriver.
Ah, our priorities.
He launched a $2-billion fund to support organizations that help homeless families and to create a network of Montessori-inspired preschools in low-income communities. So far, so good: Except two billion is one percent of his “worth” (which is more than 2,000,000 million).
Zuckerberg has committed to giving away 99 percent of his Facebook shares over his lifetime, a commitment worth tens of billions of dollars. This is a very noble idea, and we’ll await its fruition.
Musk is widely called a “genius” and, wanting to spread brain power, has offered to donate his sperm for those ordering in vitro fertilization. His claims to fame: PayPal, Tesla, Space X, and soon a flurry of robots.
True genius, one would hope, is more vital than exploding a man toward Mars.
It is more than creating algorithms for Amazon or TikTok and Instagram. But our priorities are “of this world” (and out of it).
According to reports from organizations like Oxfam and the Economic Policy Institute, the richest one percent of the population now controls more than half of the world’s wealth.
There are 2,300,7000 “millionaire” households across the country.
To look at how much celebrities such as “Puff” Diddy (rapper/record mogul/jail inmate) have been able to accrue is to view the far and fantastic reaches of esurience and materialistic excess (below).
God is the Expert at giving us what we need. The devil has always been the expert at handing out luxury.
And mostly, what we need are things that redound to our eternal benefit, our eternal happiness, not the toys and bells and whistles and pretenses of life on earth, where the average lifespan is counted in less than eight decades.
This passing world. This world that wastes so much time on wealth and celebrities.
Life it is very
Tem-por-ary
And when so materialist:
Fair-ly scary.