Kyle's yesterday's blog regarding how able people are to come up with $2000 if they need to dig it up in a hurry, was poignant. It's scary. It's true that many people have relied on credit cards for emergency purposes. Now credit companies are limiting credit holders to certain amounts and sometimes imposing high interest, depending on how over-extended the person is and their credit worthiness. So, in short, there's no security in credit cards. This makes me realize that people have been suffering from the delusion of wealth for years because of those little plastic cards.

I've tucked my credit cards away, out of my own reach because it is too easy to spend money with a little plastic card. Now I use my debit card, another plastic card.  I used to run up huge bills: art supplies, restaurants, clothes, airlines, hotels, gifts, online programs,  you name it. Credit cards are supposed to be a convenience. It's false security. However, credit cards have been great for the economy because people buy things even when they don't have available cash. Down side: people are left with debt.

If any good has come out of this recession, it is the shocking awareness that credit worthiness does not equate your real wealth. It's nice, but you can end up in serious debt.

The recession has been a hideous shock to the entire planet. I think it is really a depression.  What I think is really happening, is a "shift" of the entire planet to a different way of doing business and co-existing. I am not implying any political message with that statement. I love free enterprise and I hate change. I resist change, unless someone can convince me it is change that is an improvement over what was. So far, no one has. "Fear" is not a convincing argument. Ineptness is a worse argument. Throwing in the towel is no solution, and throwing the baby away with the bath water is desperate. I have to use mixed metaphors here because they apply so well.

Kyle is right. He said the business community has to anticipate change and adapt. I think he was probably referring to the big shiny star of opportunity that exists online.  I agree. That's why I'm here. Some of those companies did adapt and they are doing business in China, and people in their own countries are out of work. There are professionals out there who have been erased, as if someone took a giant eraser and made them obsolete. Not fun, especially when it is a professional who wants to be in his profession. Not everybody likes computers or wants to start over in a new profession. Sure, you go with opportunity. I once met a Bosnian doctor in New York, who couldn't practice medicine in the US because he didn't have a license.  He fled from his country. He was a superintendent in one of the residential buildings on Sutton Place. Do you think he felt weird? Sure did. His world was turned upside down.

Kyle is still right. If you have skills, you find ways of using those skills to benefit others and yourself. Those skills are GOLD online.

The old fashioned hardware store in the center of town may be gone, but you are still here.

We must train our brains to see the opportunities in change, not just to survive, but to prosper. Keep your values. Stay creative.  The human spirit is invincible! It's the one thing that doesn't change.