A fellow across the aisle from me on an early flight from Boston this morning was reading the front page of the Wall Street Journal's financial section as I closed my eyes and drifted to sleep. It was just 5 am in Texas after all, and I had been up for 2 hours already. I awoke as the coffee cart lumbered past. He was on the last page now; either a very thorough reader - or I slept longer than I thought. It's my policy to avoid eye contact with any news media - thus preserving my will to live - but ya' can't really help what is in your line of sight as you open your eyes from the depths of a coma-like nap.
"BRICKS AND WATER": this is what the headline read. Under it was a line graph; the sort we are all used to seeing when we are presented with a daily, weekly (insert time here) stock report. Up and down. Some wild lurches and dives. Mountain ranges. Valleys and peaks. An ECG. Not being a financial person, I raised an eyebrow at the 'Bricks and Water' header. What could that MEAN? That the economy is all wet and slippery? That stocks are heavy, and are sinking into a pool of collective negative energy that we just can't seem to stop stewing in? That everything is smooth sailing with the exception of a few rocky ripples?
I don't know. And Lord help me I try not to care. Bricks and water, to me, mean garden structures. Pools. Ponds. Patios with moss growing on them. These things are REAL. Stocks and bonds, credit, debt, these things are only as real as we allow them to be. The value of gold is only what we arbitrarily assign to it. I can't imagine that a 100 dollar bill has much more nutritional value that a 1 dollar bill, or that it lights a fire better because of those two extra zeros. Yet we allow ourselves to get all worked up over these unreal things in life, to the point where they destroy our health, our happiness, our relationships; that little ECG on the stock report each evening is probably the cause of more ECG's in the emergency room...
I hope that whatever 'Bricks and Water' might mean to my suited neighbor in flight doesn't distress him too much today; it is lovely outside - sunny bright and warm. Alternately, if it is good news, I also hope that it doesn't give false hope or security in a world where our arbitrary value assignments to ideas, things, styles and brands can be very fickle. I like my investment right out there in my garden where I can see it, smell it, and eat its dividends. 'Bricks and Water'. It may be a good week to start building a new path:)
