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Capitalism, Socialism, and the Lady at the Dollar Tree

July 22, 2026

I was going to put up something on socialism vs. capitalism yesterday, but got quickly diverted by everything  going on at home. But here’s the twitter post that got me going in that direction. Made me laugh out loud.

Then, this morning, while at the check-out counter in the nearby Dollar Tree store (for more twice-daily “treats” to satisfy 7-year-old “puppy” Scampi’s addiction to fierce chewing), and while I was busy taking 7 packages of treats out of the bag the clerk had put them in and stuffing them instead, one by one into my backpack — the man in line behind me (old, skinny, hauling several stuffed cloth bags, looking beaten-down by the world, wouldn’t make eye contact) — had his card “rejected.”

The middle-aged woman behind him, waiting for this transaction to end, with a composed face showing no emotion, looked on as the old man, flustered, embarrassed, asked the clerk what he should do with the stuff he had hoped to buy (I didn’t notice what it was), and she, empathizing with his plight, embarrassed for him, was trying to explain to him, pointing, “Put it over there,” etc., — when the woman behind him in line remarked, in an even voice:

“Just put it on my bill.”  And again, “Just add it to my bill.”

Well, you can imagine the hoopla that caused within the man, and the clerk as well: “Thank you, thank you,” erupting over and over again from their mouths, both obviously surprised and full of gratitude.

 

I turned away at that point to leave the store, noticing how witnessing that encounter had suddenly shifted the entire world into blessing. And, made me feel guilty. “Why didn’t I offer too, or first?” Or, was I simply feeling competitive, ego involved?

But the lady who paid for the man’s goods did not make a big deal out of it. Not at all. I doubt she felt proud of herself for doing so. Maybe she just wanted the line to move along so she could get out of there faster? Possibly. And/or  perhaps she had just spontaneously opened her heart to the man, obviously distressed beyond all measure. A fact that I, personally, did not really register until I looked back on the encounter.

I wonder how many spontaneous, or seemingly spontaneous gestures to help others are happening? In the Dollar Treat store, in my neighborhood, in Bloomington, regionally, nationally, everywhere fractious individuals live in  fractious community?  Wonder if more generosity, or less, than usual?

I remember back in 1974, when I was newly married to the man who had been my high school boyfriend 12 years earlier. I was back in my hometown, Twin Falls, Idaho, where he was the Editor of the local paper. While out riding my bike, I had been noticing the many ways passerbys help each other, give way to each other, smile in greeting hello. Then one day I after witnessing a particularly generous scene, I suddenly asked my new husband why his newspaper doesn’t report the good news? Why only bad news? To which he replied, “Because that’s what sells papers.”

It would be wonderful if someone would try to obtain metrics that show “unexpected, good deeds, gestures of generosity” in some location, for a certain amount of time? Would that be possible? For example, at Aldi’s. So many many times when I shop there I notice myself either offering or receiving this kind of generosity, when needing a quarter to get a basket. So many times we leave each other our baskets, smiling and waving “no” when the other offers  the quarter in exchange. No. Pay it forward!

Aldi’s may indeed offer this kind of metric, if someone bothers to map it. Meanwhile, let us remember: generosity is an attitude, the attitude of Love, rather than Fear, and ultimately, its expression does not lend itself to being reduced to data points. And, these days during the likely final climax of materialism, which depends on the perception of scarcity, if Elon is correct and abundance is in the offing (search, for example, google’s Gemini AI: “Elon Musk on Scarcity vs Abundance”), it may be that pretty soon, such metrics won’t matter in the least. Everyone will get what they want. So the question is, when robbed of scarcity, when confronted with abundance, what will happen next. How much “stuff” do we really want, when so much of that stuff burdensome, and moreover, will no longer serve to create and maintain social hierarchy?

At this point, and for many decades at least, most humans have been indoctrinated into seeing the societal world hierarchically, with themselves at the bottom of the pyramid, numbed to their own latent aliveness, laboring ceaselessly for “the man,” with no recourse but starvation, death.

What happens if people are freed up to follow their own purpose? How many among us have ever even conceived of having one? Of seeing oneself as a true individual, with a life path as shown by our unique astrological chart, configured for that time, that date, that place? A chart our soul agreed to prior to birth:  with the date, time, and place exactly needed to express our own unique nature, this time around, as it unfolds through time and space?

This kind of question is not usually asked. Not yet.

 

In any case, what the lady did in the Dollar Tree: would that fall under the rubric socialism or capitalism? Obviously capitalism. She did it, spontaneously of her own free will. Nobody asking, nobody expecting. And the result was what socialists often preach the absence of unless socialism is instituted.

Goings on in Green Acres Village and Beyond — AND WITHIN!

July 20, 2026

Took an early morning 4-mile walk with Scampi on yesterday’s soon-to-be-sweltering day and came upon Elisha and Mere, out on the corner, weeding peppers. Asked the names of the peppers. I took a photo of each one as Elisha pointed them out, giving a short description of each. Then asked her to email me the same, because I would forget by the time I got home. So she did.

And this morning, I found time to put them all, plus others, into my usual weekly blogpost for greenacresvillage.org.

 

Should have said “store room,” not “dark room.” Oh well!

Meanwhile, my intrepid 60-year-old son Colin Cudmore, who has been paralyzed from the waist down and with more or less extreme peripheral neuropathy 24/7 for nearly 3 years, is now very excited. His older brother Sean recently ordered him a particular red light therapy apparatus (the one referred to in a post by Redacted), though it is not expected to arrive for three to six weeks. But:  one of the packages came today! We’re hoping the other is on its way too.

I just went next door to take a picture of it. Redlife is the name. I know it’s the most expensive brand, so it’s likely the one Sean bought for his brother.

I told Colin I would be down to his apartment to use it as well! He loves the idea. Who knows, maybe there will be an entire parade of folks who regularly traipse down to Colin’s apartment for red light therapy! He, ever the Aquarian extravert, loves the idea.

As soon as the other package arrives we’ll take them to him so he can begin to undergo cellular repair. Maybe the other one will even come during time Sean is here for his regular biannual visit, to arrive from Colorado this Wednesday for one week.

Colin said to me today that he dreamed last night of being able to walk again . . .

Frankly, I would not be surprised.

It may be that this three year saga will become just a blip in Colin’s life story. A huge blip, of course, in which he has had to learn to make moment by moment peace with either death or purgatory while alive, over and over and over again, and did so. (BTW: Colin happens to have perhaps the most difficult astrological chart I’ve ever seen . . .)

Meanwhile, I’m noticing in myself, the same thing I’ve noticed all my life: how I project onto others what’s actually going on inside me. Judge them internally, for it, unmercifully. While never saying a thing, of course. I’m a good girl. And noticing once again, how these judgments are, each time I take one back, actually obvious qualities within myself.

Each time, of course, the lesson is to accept and integrate the insight offered by the projection, and in fact to feel utterly grateful for it. How else am I to learn the intricacies of my own stubborn shadow?

I’m convinced that the main reason we incarnate in bodies is to learn about ourselves through relationships with others.