The Nation We Live In, a Collection of Essays and Short Stories

The roller coaster of life contains tons of up and downs. The financial and emotional turbulence can be nagging. We all feel it, often.  Yet our idea in this chapter is to harken back to one's happiness level. Can you achieve your own unique happy? Sometimes I wonder if richer citizens are happier than the middle class, and the poorer class of society. Are they? Are the luxurious and affluent lifestyle and house living residents truly happier, than those neighbors and fellow stores patrons that are less rich? My current residential city of Austin, Texas is and has been overgoing some massive changes during just the past 5 years. Historically, my local city was known during the 1990's time period as a sleepy, cheap, and alternative College town. A cultural example would be Richard Linklater's movie titled, "Slacker".  A slacker type resident is a person who simply does just enough to get by financially on their own. Slacker lifestyle folks would rather sp...

Everyone in America is a salesperson. In some form or another, each individual American citizen is constantly selling something. For example, the typical American 9-5 commuting worker needs to impress their employer with their sales goals, content creation, accounting acumen or marketing wizardry. As the world turns and changes with each new day, the worker-bee must continue to sell their abilities and skills to both their customers and bosses alike. The employee is perpetually scrutinized, with the question, "Why is my work important, needed, and relevant?" Even your close non-business and fun-time friends are salespeople . Why? How? Well, your friends are constantly trying to enrich your friendship through excellent jokes, insightful wisdom, or enticing invites to parties and social events. All friends hope mutual fun times will translate into wild, laughable and riveting stories, upon a later date. A rhetorical question for friendom is, "Why would...