Five years.
Sixty months.
Two hundred sixty weeks.
One thousand eight hundred twenty five days.
That sounds like a long period of time.
Wait.
One second longer…Yes, that’s a long time. It feels like a particularly long time to me since that is exactly the amount of time that I’ve been sending a large sum of money, by check or electronic transfer, every month to General Motors Acceptance Corporation which shall henceforth be designated GMAC.
The large sum of money I’m referring to, the amount of which shall not be revealed here but trust me is not a hundred or two hundred or three hundred hard-earned American dollars, but significantly more than that, is my car payment.
For the past one thousand eight hundred and twenty five days I’ve been sweating behind a plow, working my fingers to the bone, breaking my veritable back to scrape together enough change to make that payment every month, and still be able to eat.
I spell that number out instead of expressing it numerically because it’s seems longer and thereby articulates the period more the way it actually feels, which is more like a prison sentence than the terms of a loan. Continue reading →

Seemingly, we humans live our lives so that we can have a house. Well, and food.
Isn’t that the way it’s been since man opted to come down from the trees and stopped dragging his knuckles on the ground?
It is certainly not a new thing that when we are not collecting the best palm fronds for our thatched roofs or installing new, sound-proof, energy efficient, double-pane windows in our craftsman view home, then we’re out hunting or gathering or, shopping.
Linda and I have managed to fall into line with the rest of the sheep, baaaaing our way to and from our jobs so that we can have toast for dinner in our own hut in a place called America. Continue reading →