The Power of Money

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  Washington, District of Columbia
Saturday, April 28, 2007

After having spent the last nights with Jan in Frederick, sight-seeing Washington in the day time, i planned to leave to New York on Saturday. I was meeting up with my friend Bob in the evening in Washington to do a little dance. Basically I didn´t have a place to stay, so I thought I´d see what the evening would bring and if I were still homeless by the end of the night, I´d take the nightbus to New York... sassy!..

I met Bob, his colleague and his boss in a fancy sports bar in one of the better Washington districts. Immediately I got swamped by stories about how they were picked up from the airport by their boss in a Hummer, how the boss´ house was worth $1.2 million, he had Picassos in his house and a big ass automatic rifle. Those things never do much for me, but it was interesting to hear nonetheless. The boss (52) got us an open tab, so we could drink whatever. After an hour or so, Bob and his colleague went off to the dancefloor and I remained with his boss. Now, the man was drunk, but I felt I had to talk to him. And before I knew it I looked him straight in the eye and asked him: are you happy? The man stared at me for a bit and suddenly I felt twice his age, even though it was the exact opposite (yes, I´m 26 ;) He told me he wasn´t. Now before I knew it again, I asked him another question; ¨well, if you´re not happy, why are you showing the younger generation, half your age, that it is such an important thing in life?¨ He grew silent for a while and finally made a cross (as in; a christian one)

He started telling me he was thinking about buying a house in Paris, maybe to retire. Now, I don´t do this often (as in; telling someone what to do) - but i looked at him and told him that was the right decision for him. He smiled and I think he knew it was.. It was a shame that afterwards he got really really drunk. At first he had offered me a place to stay, but in the end of the evening he really lost it and I decided it was better to take the bus to New York.

It´s surreal to see how everywhere in the world people want to make money, so much poverty, so many youngsters dreaming about wealth (the guy next to me here in the internet cafe in mexico is checking out pictures of pimped cars while i´m typing this) and the ones who have it, have often spent their entire lifes acquiring it, and afterwards wishing they would have the only thing back they can´t: the times that have gone by.

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