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a neighbor I KNEW was a Repub (before I saw his distaste when I invited him to an Obama House party). I knew because he built a 5000 square foot home on a piece of property that barely would hold the average 1500 sq ft houses in the neighborhood, and he built it for just him and his wife; no pets, no children, and as they are in their 40s, doubt they are planning on any at all. In a world facing climate change, I find it offensive that someone would suck up so much energy to heat and air condition such an enormous place. His basement has a twelve foot ceiling and the house is three stories tall (so now half my lawn is dying because he blocks the sun). His lot is less than 1/4 acre; very small for this area, where lots of low brick houses with basements grace a very green, treed area and there is (or was) a lot of wildlife for a suburban area. Next thing he does is trim off the branches of every tree, going up 20 feet....all his neighbors (including mine and another's) trees. He has no trees, no bushes, no flowers, and very little yard to mow. He does have an enormous garage...can't figure out what for...just one pick em up truck for work and one car, and no gardening our outdoor equipment... He HATES anything green. He should be living in the city, in a concrete jungle, if such is to his tastes, not coming out to an area where people enjoy nature and trying to turn it into a concrete jungle. Before he built his house, I had skunks and groundhogs and lots of birds and squirrels and chipmunks running through my yard. Funny, since he came, I rarely see ANY of them anymore. No kidding. Makes me wonder.
On the other side, an elderly and polite Repub widower has a home full of all types of collectibles. He has an alarm system on his house. One night it went off at 2am, so I called to see if he was okay. He said he had called the police and was sitting in his living room with his shotgun loaded. I felt sorry for the poor man, a rather small guy with severe arthritis, bad back and hip, sitting shaking in his own living room waiting to shoot someone. Turns out the wind had just severely shaken his basement windows and set off the alarm. I thought to myself, what an awful way to live. Someone robbed my house once during the day, and left with very little: a fake pearl necklace in a velvet sack and my piggy bank, which had some old coins and about 10 bucks in it. They were Cash for Gold burglars (aka drug addicts), who wanted gold items to ship to California where the items wouldn't be traced as in pawn shops. I don't have anything else worth taking, though we do own about 2000 history books. Can't see anyone robbing us for that....but I sleep well at night. I am comfortable being home alone during the day, with doors unlocked, windows and doors open when weather permits for as long as possible.
As my sister said, if someone broke into her house, they'd leave HER some money, LOL.
As that commercial might say "Peace of Mind: Priceless".
Maybe some of it has to do with having a guilty conscience, too. If you spent your life screwing other people, then you are more likely to think someone is 'of course' out to screw you. If you spend your life helping others, you are more likely to trust others....and depending upon those you help, less likely to have stuff worth stealing yourself. And less likely to feel a need to build yourself a palace (to show you can???), less likely to think that things are what make life worthwhile.
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