Class

I have been thinking about class a lot lately.

I think it all started when President Obama did not listen to some of the speeches at the G-20 meeting in New York. Most specifically, those of the leaders of the countries that the US feels antagonistic towards.

This was confusing for me, because I thought I recalled when Obama was in the presidential debates and on the stump he was saying that he would sit down and talk in person with those leaders.

Why would you leave when those leaders were going to give a speech, after they had listened to yours?

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Is it beneath him? How does the US differ from other countries in class distinction?

I find it interesting in America that it doesn't matter if someone is mortgaged to the hilt, as long as they are living in a fancy house driving a flashy car wearing fine clothes and being seen at the posh places that is a measure of status.

If someone has investments and comes from old money and lives frugally they are looked at as eccentric.

If someone is poor they are looked at with disdain.

In some other countries, class is measured from bloodlines. If you are a prince dressed in rags begging on the street and it was learned you were a prince, you would still be treated as one.

It is all about appearances, it appears. How we choose to appear, and how we choose to see others. How great the world would be if we could all just see how we all enter the world-naked human babies-and even better if we could extend that vision to all life on this earth -with respect.