Comic Book Adverts

Do people still subscribe to magazines?  I don't know.  My wife and I gave up magazine subscriptions many years ago in order to conserve paper and cut down our discretionary monthly expenses (one of the secrets to becoming a quiet millionaire next-door).

Without those folded, stapled and glued stacks of paper to review, I have lost contact with an old way of life - reading the adverts/marketplace section in the back of a magazine.

Do people still try to sell you secrets the medical industry is hiding from you?  Can you start your own moneymaking metalcutting shop at home?  Have you built an experimental helicopter in your backyard from plans you bought?

When I was a kid, I received a personalised letter that told me if I could solve a "word find" puzzle and send in the completed puzzle along with $1, I would receive a special prize and qualify for a more difficult puzzle.  I asked my parents and they warned me it was a scam but for one dollar it was worth my finding out.

Sure enough, I sent in the dollar and the puzzle and received a newer puzzle and a packet of seeds with a request for $5 to qualify for the grand prize.  My parents discouraged me from sending in $5 so I never found out if I qualified for the grand prize.

Instead, I planted the packet of seeds in a backyard flowerbed.  I think a few of the seeds turned into plants but I can't remember if they were supposed to grow into vegetables or flowers.  Spring had arrived by then so I was more interested in shooting hoops on the backyard cement patio or wading creeks with friends and looking for crawdads.

As an aquarist, I've read my share of aquarium magazines and once sent a few dollars to receive a hand-drawn set of plans for a DIY wet/dry aquarium filter system.

In the case of the prize seed packet and the hand-drawn filter system, I feel like I got my money's worth.

What is the price of information?

Looking out the window, seeing insects flying past on this sunny spring day and the neighbour's dogs barking happily as kids on spring break bicycle by, I think about all the information we receive freely and the information for which we insist on paying cash.

Because we can't remember all the complex interactions that took place to get us from embryo to adult, we tend to simplify what it takes to be a person.  Thus, we easily accept as "truth" someone selling us a secret about the miraculous curative effects of a plant.  We believe that soaking in special salts will make us wealthy (well, maybe the salt seller gets rich, right?).

We don't take the time to think about the massive construction projects and agricultural techniques on one side of the planet that affect the health of our species all across the planet.  We'd rather believe our poor health is tied to being a bad person who needs exorcism or dietary tricks "as seen on TV" or cheap exercise equipment we'll never use.

I learned long ago the secret to being me - there is no secret.  I can be fat, skinny, happy, sad, rich or poor or any other condition I choose.  I have chosen to live several conditions simultaneously, at odds or in harmony with each other at the same time.

Don't let others tell you what you have to do to be you.  Take time to know yourself first.  Understand why you walk or laugh a certain way - do you reflect your parents, your siblings, your friends or strangers you've never met (e.g., celebrities)?  If there's something about yourself in those reflections that you don't like, tell yourself it's okay to not like that one aspect and change or eliminate it, if you want.  Or keep disliking that part of you and don't change, if you like.

No matter whether there's seven billion of us or seven hundred billion of us, every one of us is a unique bundle of states of energy.  We have the ability to actively change our states of energy without paying for information someone else says will make us wealthier, prettier, wiser or stronger.

You control your own future.  Get to know and appreciate yourself in this moment so you can see the next moment belongs to you and those with whom you choose to spend your valuable time.  Don't wait for someone else to tell you you're the most special person in the world - you already know you are.  You don't need me or anyone else to tell you - that information is already in your head, if you take the time to see yourself as you are and not as others think or say they want you to be.

I appreciate your uniqueness.  In fact, I know my life depends on you.  I hope you take the time to know why your unique qualities make you the most important person in the world.

In our one big family, all of us are interconnected.  Let's act like we know we're a family instead of attacking one another as if we're predator and prey species.  We own our emotions - let's spend them wisely.