Gains and Losses.

The advertising that pops up with my Weather Bug widget caught my eye this morning. It showed a bare stomach belonging to a young lady with the catch phrase: "Gain a flat stomach in two weeks."

Well, I'm not sure they meant "gain". Gain is growth, in volume, in cents, in knowledge. Bu those are the words used in that commercial, at a time when people have become a bit sensitive about losses. With all the people losing jobs, homes, retirement funds, all we want is to gain. Tell us that's possible and will jump in the pool.

The old adage, "buyers beware" is still in play. But there is something else. We have become so accustomed to the hype, the spin, wordplay that confuse, reduce and infuse, that we are now in a catatonic mood. We can't buy any more because we have experienced a crisis of delusion, of our own making. We can't trust our senses to communicate clearly to us. Were we not having a good time spending? Wasn't it fun ?

If Wall Street missed the signs, if boards that oversee corporations continued to approve lascivious bonuses for CEO's that were deciding such strange ventures, if our own Treasury Department and National Leaders kept saying things were fine, how were we to know? Now we are skittish and worried, and for very good reasons.

We lost our innocence, in this economic downturn. We lost our bubbly personalities and effervescent buying esprit. We are turning down our heat, freezing our credit cards, and digging in our backyard. We are going to grow our own wealth the old fashioned way, by growing our food, sewing our clothes, repairing our cars. Well, not this last part.

When our grandchild visits, we'll fish, clean and cook our own food, shell peas, make jams with our berries, and build muscles as we canoe to the Ocean. If she still has lots of energy, she'll pack food for the local pantry with the rest of us. She'll gain respect for those folks who grow her food and harvest the oceans.