I still have a hard time understanding the thirst for wealth that drives many people. It bewildered me when I was fifteen years-old and it bewilders me, still, more than fifteen years later. I do not understand the almost selfless devotion to corporations that many middle-managers feel. I do not understand what keeps those sales-reps and various salaried administrative-types glued to their lap-top computers for sixteen hours every day. Is wealth so important that you would compromise your very being to have it?

I was a bottom-feeder at one of the largest companies in the world. I was one of the millions of legs that moved the milipedal body of a massive transportation company. The world was promised to you and everyone was made to feel that they were important and respected. Except, in today's economy (and I do not mean that of the falling markets and financial crises) there are no promises and there is no respect. The first sign of profit distress, no matter how miniscule and how localized, will trigger an amputational reaction. Done. Expelled like snot in a flu-ridden nose.

So I watch these upper-level administrators and these upper-level managers and directors and I have to wonder what makes them believe they are different. Though, actually, I should start to wonder why it is that I am still in places where I see all of this. I should ask myself why I am still hauling boxes out of trailers and filing shippng manifests and not building cabins or stone cottages in the woods.