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It's over for another year; the shopping and getting ready for the Christmas Season with all its trimmings has passed once more. The attitudes change for some family members to an abnormally benevolent stance and then others seem oblivious to the world outside of their immediate surroundings. They seem to be anesthetized, insensible to reality.
Our "families" are different when we grow older and become part of the world in general. We develop new family members for lots of reasons, the most prevalent seems to be divorce and then some of us move away and become detached.
I for one am one of the detached ones, I hardly ever see my real family members. They are either passed on, live in other countries and have their own lives or are an X-Wife that is outside of my immediate thoughts. I never wanted to live in a communal situation. You know how that works, everyone is born, goes to school, gets married and dies eventually, never leaving the flock they started out in. I suppose that makes me akin to the orangutan male that leaves his group to live alone, and only returns to find a mate, procreates and leaves again. We develop pseudo families, friends that we pal around with. The old adage "you can choose your friends, not your family" becomes normal.
Many of us travel far from immediate family unit and away from the old homestead. There are many reasons, making a living and being comfortable seem to be accurate for most. Our "families" become those around us, the friends we develop around the local hangout, you know, the guy and gal that sit across the bar every night on the way home!
An introverted lifestyle might be ok for you, I need to be part of "The Group" that is always somehow seen together. The ones that are always in the same seat in their "chosen family abode". Extroverts congregate, Introverts disintegrate!
Empathy is somehow lost here lately with all the monetary strife brought on by governmental intervention. We have lost sight of the needs of our comrades and it seems to be every man for himself. The "in crowd" has dwindled to just a few die-hards that refuse to believe that the money is running out of the cookie jar never to be replenished.
Here in Costa Rica the Gringo/Resident that has been living on the "retirement income" produced by the repayment of "loans" to the Brothers or the Cuban, or the "investment dividends" supposedly doled out by factions like "The Vault" has almost ceased to exist. They are one by one finding other avenues to pursue what's left of life and leaving our midst. The "in crowd" family is dwindling to a "few friends".
That money in my mind will unfortunately never come to light again. Our social security funds just don't amount to what it takes to "live" anywhere. Most of us retired early because of the extra income that dropped out of the San Jose sky every month feeling that we had made an excellent decision that provided more monetary security than the "WorldCom" scandal. We had a great means of retirement funds and we took advantage of early retirement in a great place to spend it. We the "smart ones" have been set upon by factions not controllable by investors groups or for that matter individual bitching, the money's gone folks! Life anywhere is tough without the means to make it enjoyable!
I sure hope this new year will be a Happy New Year.
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