100 ACRE WOODS

100 ACRE WOODS

i just spent four nights living in a hotel in Florida where things are so extravagant that their sewing kits come in aluminum tins, the maids come in twice a day and the going rate for a room is $500 US/night. and it was all paid for – an award trip from my parents’ company. :) but looking out over the hotel grounds from our balcony, i couldn’t help but feel the grotesqueness of it all. the energy used to light and heat the building for a day would probably be enough to power a small country in europe for a week! all the opulence was pretty but it felt so hollow. all i could think was, “this isn’t real life.” real life is out on the streets. real life is the people in the soup kitchen who know what it is to live the human experience with no fancy trappings. real life is being in touch with God.

being in Disneyworld wasn’t much better. for all the messages of hope and world peace, it still stunk of materialism and commercialism. it was a very nice trip and definitely a once-in-a-lifetime experience but i’m glad to be home, back in my little corner of reality. back where sandwiches don’t cost $8 and where trees are planted outside, not inside. where things are more-or-less natural.