Fistful of Gravel: Why I like writing poetry

Poetry isn't sappy, dorky, or nerdy, and poetry isn't restricted to any social class, rank, or status, at least this is not my experience.  I have found that writing poetry provides me with a channel my racing thoughts and the resulting creativity within me, it's also an outlet for expressing my feelings after a stressful or difficult experiences, and overall, the act of writing poetry for me is therapeutic, it helps me to process life's challenges.  

"Fistful of Gravel: A bucketful of Blue Collar poems" is unlike most poetry that comes to mind, this collection is mostly inspired by and focused on blue collar work, the jobsite experiences, and the struggles of hard work.  My hope is for anyone working with their hands for a living that they can connect to these poems, see themselves in the circumstance, and find joy in reading these short poems...

Click here for a sample poem "For Jeffery"

click here to see my poetry book, "Fistful of Gravel: Bucketful of Blue Collar poems" 

What I wish I had told my kids when they were young and what I wish Americans knew too

Let me start off with a couple analogies of sorts.  I'll start with married couples, and then I'll move to the factory floor and to the grimy work of being knee deep in mud, and then share what I wish I told my kids sooner.

I've counselled dozens of married couples and hundreds of people.  I've learned there are only two distinguishing steps between those who work out their problems and those who stay stuck in a mess.  Here are the two steps that determine whether a person will get healthier or grow worse: One, they want to get healthier.  They want it more than other people want them to get healthy, that is, they want to get healthy themselves.  Two, they put in the work to change.  They don't give up just because it's hard.

I've seen married people fight against each other, and I've seen married people fight for each other.  It's not hard to guess which type of couple will gain success in healing their relationships.

Second analogy.  There are people in this world who know what it's like to have to work hard for what they have, and there are people who like to idealize hard work.  For example, I worked in a factory for two years while I was in high school.  I met people there who had worked in that same factory for 30 years, they put in their time, as the saying goes.  That was all they knew, hard work and dedication to the company.  Also, I've worked in concrete on and off all of my life, I've met some people who truly strive to labor diligently, and who give an honest day's work for for an honest day's wage.

Now, this isn't to say that there aren't white collar people who don't work hard.  I'm not simply talking about working hard, I'm talking at this point in time about work that is hard, it's hard on the body, it takes its toll on a person.  It grinds you into dust kind of work.  But I do want to say I respect the hard working white collar workers who aren't afraid to wear themselves out for the work they are passionate about,  And my feelings are true for the hard working artists too.

My contrast in this second analogy is this: I've also met people who have never had to work for anything, most of what they have was handed to them.  They stayed on their parent's dole, or their in-laws took care of them, well into adulthood.  They don't know what it's like to have to earn anything, everything has pretty much been given to them without any need for them to work for it.  Yet, they have a romantic view of what work is (Like the kids who wear timberland work boots or Carhartt jackets but have never dug a ditch with a shovel or carried a heavy load in their entire life).

Now, there are people in the same station of life who know their folks took care of their needs, who respect their parents and who don't pretend to know what it's like to have to be self-sufficient, they have no shame crediting their folks for taking care of their needs.  This last case of people is few and far in between.

These long rambling thoughts lead me to write now what I wish I had told our children when they were younger and what I wish America knew too:  No one is immune from effort. I suppose I could've just tweeted that short sentence, but I feel this topic deserves this lengthy commentary.

What I mean by this is, we all have to exert energy and work hard most of our life.  Life isn't easy.  Life is hard.  But! Work isn't a curse, it's a gift, it's a blessing.

My theology leads me to conclude that our God is a creator God.  Creators are creative, they work, they make things and do things, that is they work.  If our God is a worker God, then it makes sense to me, we who are created in His image would be creatures who would work.  Yes God is much more too, but this post isn't about covering the entire nature of God :-)

In my opinion, the real reason socialism appeals to the very people it does appeal to is because socialism sells the notion "you won't have to work hard to receive the same benefits as those who do work hard."  I think it's true, you reap what you sow.  If you plant a crop, you reap the fruit.  If you don't plant seeds, you don't receive a bounty.

Wouldn't it be nice to receive gifts all year long? But Christmas and your birthday only come around once a year.  Yet, in socialism, everyday gets to be Christmas.  With socialism, you deserve to get birthday gifts on the days it's someone else's birthday, in fact you get to unwrap their presents.

Also, socialism somehow proposes that a group of people can put their combined resources in a blender and everyone will drink the same frozen concoction.  Or simply put, socialism wants everyone to bear all the burdens the same, except for the people who have stored up more wealth and resources, then they should give a greater percentage of their share.  Or better yet, the wealthiest people should feel the same sting we lower class people feel when it comes to paying taxes.

Let me share a little secret with you, Bill Gates, the Walton family, along with Warren Buffet and you and me, we leave it all behind.  You can't take it with you when you go, but you can stand before the living God and explain to Him how you used your resources in life, or how you hid them.  Really, socialism is trying to replace God, it's trying to make decisions for people that only God makes, if I'm understanding the underlying appeal of socialism as the idea socialism will make everyone with more, give more.  Sounds a bit envious to me?

And, let me share one more secret with you who are envious of the wealthy.  Well two more secrets for you who are envious of the wealthy.  Number one, if you are reading this, you are probably wealthier than 95% of the entire world's population, those poor people who don't have electricity, running water, or the internet.  Number two, and a little harder hitting, Jesus, who never had a place to rest His head, told people it would be best to give away everything they owned and to follow Him, to not store up any treasures, but to seek the Kingdom.  So Jesus warned people of the dangers of wealth and of trusting wealth more than God.  Jesus says it's hard for rich people to get into heaven, nearly impossible.  Let that one sink in for awhile, for those of us who are richer than 95% of the world that is.

Our four sons are hard working young men in whom I'm very proud.  Even though I didn't share this idea with them when they were young, that is that no one is immune from effort, they still have a great work ethic.  I do wish I had shared this idea with them earlier in life, because I think this fact would have helped to better prepare them mentally or emotionally to face the challenges of hard work a little bit better.  It's not bleak or pessimistic to say life is hard and we all have to work hard, it's reality, and it's based in part in the character of God.

I think we as a nation have selfish, spoiled people and an unprepared generation that isn't equipped to face the reality, we all have to work.  Please take a look at 3 much shorter posts I wrote on socialism to gain a fuller perspective on my thoughts on the subject as well.

Who would want socialism?

The seduction of socialism

The logjam of socialism

PS: 

"1. You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity.

2. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving.

3. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else.

4. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it!

5. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that is the beginning of the end of any nation." (Source unknown)

Who would want Socialism?

From the time you were a small child, you were told to share.  You might've even been disciplined for not sharing as a child.  From what some in the media tells us, Capitalism rewards the rich & greedy, while it abuses the disadvantaged in society.  Following this logical thinking then, wouldn't socialism be the solution to most of our modern-day inequality and cure all of our poverty?

And, if we had free healthcare, free college -- like we already have free public schools, and free everything else, wouldn't we be a healthier and happier culture.  Let's come back to this question.

Most of the people I talk with who favor Socialism do not really seem to know what they are in favor of.  It seems that most of the people in favor of Socialism think that all of the "free" stuff comes from a limitless supply of abundance, but they don't stop to ask from where would these resources flow.  

Socialism is an ideology, it's a perspective that endorses the government's control over the production of goods & services, and the distribution or redistribution of said goods.  Socialism, really is about a collective ownership where no one really has personal property, and it removes the need for individualism, giving the government total control over all material wealth.  And, it's a system that generates the highest taxation of its people.

One of the disadvantages of Socialism is the government has to increase exponentially to take over control of the private sector.  This is interesting to me since most of the younger voters who are on the side of Bernie Sanders do not embrace the idea of the government telling us the people what to do.  One of Bernie's platforms is legalizing marijuana, a removal of governmental control over it.  This is interesting, because on the one hand it seems like the voice of the people wins, but in reality, it's just another way to increase tax revenue on a commodity that people who want to consume it will consume it regardless of its legality.

Another disadvantage to Socialism is the reality that it removes the incentive of hard work.  In the real world, people do enjoy the fruits of their labor, not someone else's labor.  Yet, if you lived under the control of a Socialistic government, there would be people who simply would not be motivated to work hard, because they would know that the benefits of all of their hard work would be shared with the many able-bodied people who have never had to work for anything (who in turn, aren't motivated to work at all...).   Think of this example, if you could receive a college degree just for enrolling in college, but you didn't have to attend classes, would you do it?  Who wouldn't?  But, what would that do to the value of higher education?

But what about generosity and philanthropy, wouldn't those ideals override the weakness of character that would demotivate the hard worker who didn't want to give away his spoils?  Generosity only works on a volunteer basis.  If you can't willingly give from the heart, but you are made to share anyway, then it means what was yours was forcefully taken from you.  And, the only people who can't understand this, are people who have never had to work for anything, they've had everything handed to them already.

Margret Thatcher, former British Prime Minister, once quipped, "The problem with Socialism is you eventually run out of other people's money."   Maybe that's not entirely accurate, maybe the problem with Socialism is, you run off other people who would work hard to earn money.  Instead of a redistribution of wealth, what we need is a redistribution of a healthy work ethic.

I'm not saying Capitalism is perfect, nor would I say our world is perfect now, not by a long shot.  We have a long way to go towards improving equality in our culture, but Socialism isn't even close to the answer.  I would say with confidence that Socialism has failed everywhere it's been tried.  More people starved to death in the 20th Century under Socialist governments than those who died fighting in wars during the same time period.  In present-day countries under the control of socialism, the middle class has been taxed so heavily, there is almost no middle class, thus leaving a wider gap between the wealthy and the poor, resulting in the bankruptcy of several European countries.

Now, back to the question of Socialism increasing our happiness through giving us free stuff.  Please go and ask people who work hard for their for the money how happy they are, and then ask someone who lives off of welfare how happy they are, preferably asking someone who is a second or third generation family member that depends on welfare.  Please let me know who seems to be the happier of the two to you.  Better yet, ask a refugee from a Socialistic country who has fled their homeland to come to the land of opportunity how happy they were under Socialism...

You see, Socialism isn't really about sharing, it's ultimately about taking.  It's legalized confiscation and a bureaucratic method of deciding who gets what, not based on sharing your own sweat equity or how well you contribute to the whole, but it's based on what the government deems appropriate for you to consume and enjoy.  In the end, the only thing Socialism is good for, is for providing material for dystopian stories.