The Occupy Movement and A Painted House by John Grisham

One thing you may not know about me is that I read a lot of books! All kinds of books, any books,  people give me books all the time and they are all read and then passed on. It is pretty rare that I don't like a book. 

I find I learn about life and life experiences with fiction even more than an informational or non-fiction book. I admit it may be my  state of openness when I read fiction because I am doing it with pure joy without any obligation and complete receptivity.

I think all stories even science fiction which is even in worlds that don't exist have elements of truth or something to ponder about; a place, a time and relationships. I mark off passages that move me or made me think about something I want to talk about or share with my family or write about; either in my journal to help me along with something I'm struggling with or just explain something I've been feeling but couldn't put into words. 

I thought I'd share this one with you today because sometimes we think the stock markets and the world we live in today puts us at the mercy of wall street. Now what you may know about me is that I love the underdog so I resonate with the occupy movement much more that I do with the one percent but this passage on page 78 of "The Painted House" by John Grisham assuaged me somehow.

The story is told in the voice of a young boy which was really refreshing it was a great little read: 

"My pop says the cotton prices are goin' down," Dan Montgomery said as he tossed a rock into the darkness. "Says the cotton traders in Memphis are pushin' down prices 'cause there's so much cotton."

"It's a big crop," I said. The Montgomery twins wanted to be farmers when they grew up. I felt sorry for them.

When the rains flooded the land and wiped out the crops, the prices went up because the traders in Memphis couldn't get enough cotton. But the farmers, ofcourse, had nothing to sell. And when the rains cooperated and the crops were huge, the prices went down because traders in Memphis had too much cotton. The poor people who labored in the fields didn't make enough to pay their crop loans.

Good crops or bad crops it didn't make any difference."

See what I mean? This made me remember that we have to be careful with nostalgia. Many people have struggled for a long time and well there have always been the ones who beat it or find another way and even thrived when things were much harder so we can too. What do you think?