Byline: Rel. Riches

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=40 BGCOLOR="#000066" TEXT="#F7F7FF"> <div> <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#66CCFF" FACE="Arial" >Selected Writing:  Relative Riches</FONT>    | <A HREF="index_home.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Philosophy"><U> H</U></A><A HREF="index_home.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Philosophy"><U>ome</U></A>  | <A HREF="id19_writings_1.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Writings: Philosophy Psychology"><U> </U></A><A HREF="id19_writings_1.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Writings: Philosophy Psychology"><U> Writings Menu</U></A><A HREF="id19_writings_1.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Writings: Philosophy Psychology"><U>:  Phil. & Psy.</U></A><A HREF="id19_writings_1.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Writings: Philosophy Psychology"><U> </U></A> | <A HREF="id128_general_topics.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="General Topics"><U>Writings:  General Topics </U></A> | <A HREF="id112_crv_writings.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Writings: Remote Viewing"><U>Writings:  Remote Viewing </U></A> | <A HREF="id17_bio.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Bio"><U> Bio</U></A>  | <A HREF="id34_pub__writings.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Publications"><U>Publications</U></A> |</div> <bR> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=210 BGCOLOR="#000066" TEXT="#F7F7FF"> <div> <B>OTHER ARTICLES</B></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id26_lear.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Selected Writing: On Lear"><U><B><IMG SRC="0be15150.gif" border=0 width="21" height="21" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></U></A><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#66CCFF" FACE="Arial" ><I><B><---Language as a Metaphor:  Translation as a Model for Understanding Johathan Lear's Analysis of Freud's    Concepts</B></I></FONT></div> <div> <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#111111" FACE="Arial" ><A HREF="id18_writings.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="When A CatAngel"><U><B><IMG SRC="0be15150.gif" border=0 width="21" height="21" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></U></A></FONT><B><----</B><I><B>When a Cat Is Really an Angel:  Target Data vs. Imagination in CRV</B></I></div> <div> <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#111111" FACE="Arial" ><A HREF="id28_karla_faye.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Selected Writing: Karla Faye"><U><B><IMG SRC="0be15150.gif" border=0 width="21" height="21" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></U></A></FONT><B><----</B><I><B>Texas' Stone of Stumbling:  On the Occasion of the Texas Execution of </B></I></div> <div> <I><B>Karla Faye Tucker</B></I></div> <div> <I><B>(February, 1998)   </B></I></div> <div> <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#111111" FACE="Arial" ><A HREF="id47_the_dynamics_of_culture__.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Selected Writing: Management "><U><B><IMG SRC="0be15150.gif" border=0 width="21" height="21" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></U></A></FONT><B><----</B><I><B>The Dynamics of Culture In Relation to</B></I></div> <div> <I><B>Management </B></I></div> <div> <I><B>Philosophy and Methodology</B></I></div> <div> <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#111111" FACE="Arial" ><A HREF="id49_making_a_stray_cat_prolific.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Selected Writing: Making a Stray Cat Pro"><U><B><IMG SRC="0be15150.gif" border=0 width="21" height="21" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></U></A></FONT><B><----</B><I><B>Making a Stray Cat Prolific:  Thesaural Imaging and Remote Viewing</B></I></div> <div> <A HREF="id80_cassirer.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Selected Writings: Cassirer/Buchanan"><U><B><IMG SRC="0bd18180.gif" border=0 width="24" height="24" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></U></A><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#66CCFF" FACE="Arial" ><I><B>Cassirer, on the Expressive Form of Mythopoeic Thought: A Foundation for Buchanan's Concept of Ambiance </B></I></FONT></div> <div> <A HREF="id50_influence_med__concept.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="New Med. 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D.</B></div> <bR> <bR> <div> Relativism as expounded by social scientists and ethical theorists often sounds like the morning report of a drunken sailor who has navigated by the stars on a cloudy night.  Most of us are at home with little more than some proverbial statement about the subject.  Haven't we all wiggled out of uncomfortable logical corners by flippantly saying,  "Well, everything is relative."</div> <bR> <div> We know the basic principle:  that little elephants are large in relation to big bears.  And we know that fast turtles lag behind slow rabbits.  However, the lesson we learn from such observations is not simply that dumb animals perplex smart men.   We understand the impact of relativity most graphically when we recognize that the value of our past experience is determined by our past experience of value. </div> <bR> <div> When I was a child, my family lived in poverty. However, I did not know that I was poor.  I found that out later.  In those days I rolled an old tire down a dirt road.  I made a slingshot out of a forked tree limb and tire-tube rubber.  I caught "lightening bugs" and put them in a Mason jar.   A June bug buzzed a circle around my head.  (I had a string tied to its left leg.)</div> <bR> <div> Although I had a happy childhood in spite of our poverty, I certainly didn't feel rich--well, except that one day when I visited a friend who had no outdoor john like we had. (He had no indoor john either.)  But I lost that sense of prestige when I discovered that another friend's family didn't save the Sears and Roebuck catalogue for use outside the house.  I was convinced that they were "rolling" in affluence.</div> <bR> <div> In those days Christmas tree was synonymous with cedar tree, and Santa's toys were truly handcrafted works of art, i.e., home-made, constructed lovingly by Santa's helpers.  We sang Joy to the World and didn't know that a third of it was starving to death.  We hung our clothes out to dry on barbed wire fences and looked down on people who took "charity."</div> <bR> <div> I have a garbage disposal now.  There is no slop bucket sitting in my kitchen.  (I don't own any pigs.)  I have a very large refrigerator.  (No more long cords for suspending a quart of milk in a cool dug well out back.)  I wake up to traffic noise and alarm clocks today.  (I don't know what I'd feed a rooster if I still had one.)</div> <bR> <div> In reality, I know that I am basically middle class.  However, I feel rich when I walk around on my carpeted floors.  In the late evening I listen to my stereo.  But, somehow, not hearing that creaking noise made by a very old house in the quiet of the night tells me of the poverty of my present existence.</div> <bR> <div> We will always be richer than some and poorer than others.  That will remain a relative matter.  And what makes us happy today may be far removed from what gave us joy in the past.  But let us never forget:  What we experience as wealth in our lives will always be relative to the wealth of our experience.</div> <bR> <div> <TABLE BORDER="2" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="516" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" BGCOLOR=#000066 > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 138 ><NOBR><div> <IMG SRC="1246f830.jpg" border=0 width="111" height="131" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="378"><bR> <div> Bill Stroud, of Oxford, Mississippi,, has an extensive background in three areas: theology, philosophy and psychology (B.D, Th.D., Ph.D). Although semi-retired, he is active as a speaker, free-lance writer and a workshop presenter for educational and service agencies.  He presently is an adjunct professor in the Department of Philosophy and Religion at Ole Miss University.</div> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div> <B> </B></div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>