The best deal out there

If you were born between 1946 and 1964, you are an official member of the “baby boomer” generation. Your parents belong to what has been termed the “greatest generation”. It is important to understand that those ladies and gentlemen didn’t earn that recognition just because they got married and produced all of us baby boomers. Not by a long shot! They were great because they worked, sacrificed, fought and died to make this world safe for democracy by whipping Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini in World War II. They were also great because they came up in hard times imposed by a “soup kitchen and bread line” economy, also known as the Great Depression. They learned how to squeeze a nickel so hard the buffalo hollered. They learned how to make do and how to do without. They also learned a trick called “do it yourself”, not to look clever, or show off, but because back then it was sinful and just plain lazy to pay for something you could make or do yourself. That was a different world. If you’re a boomer, you know it from the stories your parents told. Nowadays, that do-it-yourself DNA is almost extinct, but there are still a few around who cannot be cured of the inherited DIY bug. My wife has learned that the eight most-feared words in the English language she could hear from me are, ”I need some stuff from the hardware store.” She knows that means I’m starting another project which will have questionable success and an undetermined schedule. I can’t help it. I come from a long line of do it yourselfers. I have fond memories as an 8-year-old of going to Powell’s Barbershop on Saturday mornings and sitting in one of the worn brown leather chairs listening to the grownups. When the price of haircuts went up to 50 cents, that all ended. My father brought home a used electric hair trimmer that buzzed demonically like something in Count Frankenstein’s laboratory, and the era of free homemade crewcuts began for me and my brother. In all fairness, I will admit that soon after this, my salary for cutting the grass did benefit slightly. From my early days, I was hooked on DIY. This was encouraged and facilitated by tips from the world’s best teacher, and I became fully indoctrinated into the idea of doing whatever I could do for myself. Of course, today, our society shakes its head in disapproval of all that. Today, the less you do for yourself, the better it is for the global pay scale. Today, we have people who will do just about anything for you that you foolishly imagine you could do for yourself. For example, we have people who call themselves influencers. They will tell you what you should like and what you shouldn’t like. We have organizers. They will tell you what to do and what not to do. There are people called deputy assistants. They do, I guess, whatever the chief assistants don’t feel like doing. We also have an occupation called a life coach. I’m not exactly sure what they do, but if you need someone to show you what to do with life, don’t pay for it. Save your money, because some people still do that for free. They’re called parents. My last comment on the value of “doing it yourself” would be this: Free advice is worth exactly what you pay for it, and the best deal in this world is thinking for yourself. That might require a little effort, but it’s absolutely free, and in the long run, nobody can do a better job at that, than you.

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