4:33 AM

My friend sent me an email at 4:33 AM. I asked him what he was doing awake at that time of the morning.

Yeah couldn't sleep. Worried about the market and future.

I wrote back.

Ran into a friend of mine. She has 2 kids (single mom) and "retired" about 10 years back with a nice nest egg. She made money buying and selling stocks and did quite well. This last period of time (September to present) has hit her hard. She told me that this was very different from the dot.com bust because the effect has been more far reaching. I asked her if she was contemplating going back to work. She has been thinking about it but still has enough money socked away for the next few years.

But it has been an adjustment.

I guess if we all pondered this too much the meta message might be that we're too tied to things and possessions and that when the market fails, we get sucked in big time. The very thing that gave us wealth now turns on us and bites us in the ass. Our ego's are built around having wealth and a certain lifestyle versus really being free to live life. I am glued to it as much as any one. I know years back I was not and when things like this happened I just went on with my cheap little lifestyle.

We all have to pay our way but when I think of Lawrence (of Arabia) I remember that he sought a simplified lifestyle to avoid entanglements. But the World War Two hadn't happened yet. Had he lived, Churchill would have drawn him back in. Position and responsibility means complexity and complexity means the need for "other" things. Things which we can lose at a drop of a hat. Inanimate things (not living things) that we come to care way too much about.

________________Running News___________________________

I ran two up and back's this morning with Jake over at Forbes Mill. We were pushing the second one when Jake took a header on our way back down and ripped up the heel of his hand. Instinctively I hit the timer button on my stop watch as he began to tip over. I froze the time at just over 14 minutes. I wasn't even aware that I had done that until I looked back down at the watch after I knew he was OK.