Greta's World

I've been thinking a lot about Greta Thunberg.  She will be 17 in a couple of weeks and is an amazing young activist.  Hats off to her parents for building this gem of a child with such a good heart and wise soul.

Greta is two years younger than my youngest child, and nearly young enough to be the daughter of my firstborn.  She was born into a world we have taken for granted.  When we felt our families had to be a two income thing, we embraced things that made that easier.  We doubled our use of fossil fuels, nearly every item of food or product is/was packaged in trash, and we were too tired and stressed to care if it was a growing problem.  Those aren't excuses, they are explanations.  We handed her a world of selfish short-sightedness that my generation is only now beginning to see the problem of.

I was young in a town where milk was still delivered in glass bottles.  Very quickly it became cartons, and in many sizes.  We drank it from plastic straws or Styrofoam cups.  A quick dinner was baked in it's aluminum base and wrap before being devoured and thrown away.  Desert meant jumping in the (leaded fuel) car and driving a couple blocks to Dairy Queen.  There we consumed ice cream made from cows (emissions), shipped to individual stores (diesel, electricity) with plastic spoons in lined paper dishes.

I lived in "Chemical Valley".  It's that part of the US that is now famous for the "Dark Waters" of DuPont and Union Carbide and other chemical manufacturers.  I lived there for 19 years, then again for a few more before moving on.  My sister has an eye condition we know is from the soil there, and I had a battle with Lymphoma that we don't know the source of.  My daughter's great grandpa died of complications from being exposed to asbestos at work for many years.

In one generation, my fellow residents of the Mid-Ohio (river) Valley went from being hard working farmers and miners to being whining, entitled union workers with no need to worry about the environment.  It's not their fault entirely.  We were encouraged to "do better" or "get more" or leave something for our children. We embraced technology, communication, transportation, and science like no generation before us. Driven by what we were taught was "success", we took our new tools and found new and better ways to rape the planet.

About the turn of the century, we realized we were headed down the wrong path.  We began learning, sometimes involuntarily, what was happening and the long term effects.  We started making small differences; composting more, recycling some, and driving more fuel efficient vehicles.  We taught our children, now the young adults leading the world, that we need to be smarted and more connected to nature. Still, we modeled that entitled mindset and throw away culture.  Most of us still do.

Sadly, we taught our children to work even harder and earn even more.  Most can't survive without take out, and not because they are lazy.  It is a necessary evil in may households because of the hectic lifestyle.  We taught our kids to get psychotherapy, explore spirituality, get into good physical shape, and embrace the arts.  Now, as they become parents themselves, if they are lucky enough to be partnered, they are parents who both have to work.  On top of that are hours in a gym, active participation in support of a school, carpools to dance or music classes, and hours of coaching or watching our kids' sports. We are now two generations of exhausted adults.

That is what the people of Greta's generation have been handed.  It's a world so expensive that we  have to work even harder, even though we have such great technological advances. It's a world where just about everyone has some sort of addiction, whether drugs, sex, or Sandal's Vacations.  It's a world destroyed by taking things out of it and putting in things it can't benefit from.  We handed it to them with no sense of guilt-why should we feel guilty about doing what made our parents proud?

What is "Greta's Generation" doing with what we gave them?  They are, on a very personal and fundamental level, trying to fix the damage we have done.   In making those changes, they are teaching us how to value things beyond what money can buy.  These "kids" have a wisdom and foresight beyond any previous generations.  Millions of people just like Greta are working hard to make positive change.  While she is the face of it, the reality is that our kids are a damn sight better than we are.  Every single child in civilized society knows about recycling.  Most understand composting.  While they may not be perfectly doing it, this generation is making the world exponentially better than the one they were born into.

The very least we can do is give them the tools, the space and the platform to do that.  Greta has been harassed and criticized for her efforts and that needs to stop.  Kids have anxiety about their physical future and we need to recognize that. My generation simply MUST stop complaining and start embracing the idea of climate responsibility and consumer behavior change.

Just do it.  Learn to recycle.  Don't take more food than you can use.  Quit littering.  Mostly, stop complaining.  If you don't want to spend 5 cents on a bag, don't buy one.  When your bamboo based paper plate is not as strong as Styrofoam, quit complaining. When the waiter brings you a paper straw, suck it up.

I Think I Have Lost It

There's something going on.  Not simply, it's turned what is going on to thinks it feels wrong.  What is going on?

It should be tough to get the right to guess.  Broken is the past to hitting the clarity, it's more like I can just come to a normal way.  It's bleeding.  It's confusing.  It's should be an interview; a complete  the simple of the notice and the quick return. It isn't like that. Now it, for no matter, both in the vocalic and the printed should be just a snow and get problem shifting sooner. It's in my mouth and in my signature.

My computer is also a build that a promised.  Becoming onto the computer thing is a challenged, as I cannot type.  The wordy craft is constitute not matching.

I am ok with pain so far except for the head ache.  I often get a long period to gain the collapse in the modern.  I can take a pill that normally takes it every day, often new you.

I'm  not taking pharmacy more than I have been for years.
I'm not ability to know what is in cleaning or making a dinner.
It seems to get worse just a little every day.

I need to find what is happening.

Losing My Religion

(Originally intended for mounteer.news until it got REALLY long)

I haven’t been a Christian in decades, but the more this virus stuff, Trump, and global warming continues the more I think maybe the prophets were correct.  In any event, it would be a good thing if we would nip this stuff in the bud.  We’ve already got the ones checked below.  Some would say we have all of them.

• A summary of Jesus' words in Matthew 24 shows that the end times will involve the following:
• ü wars and rumors of wars
• ü nation rising against nation, and kingdom against kingdom
• ü famines and earthquakes
• ü false prophets coming in Jesus' name
• ü many people being deceived by false prophets
• false prophets performing signs and wonders
• persecution of true believers
• ü people's love of God decreasing
• ü the gospel preached in the whole world
• ü the "abomination of desolation" (a world leader who makes himself out to be God)
• ü great tribulation
• alterations in the sun, moon, stars
• Jesus' true followers gathered to Him
• Jesus' return
• Jesus' judgment of people on earth

It’s not my intention here to judge anyone’s religious beliefs.  My goal is to take a frank look at the prophecy in Revelations and how it might apply to current events.  Likewise, it is not a political statement for or against the sitting leadership of the western world.

For a long time, longer ago than 2016, we’ve been letting things slide.  In fact, long before any of us were born, the world was plagued with rulers who were allowed to make really bad decisions.  There have always been wars.  There have been many times of “great tribulation”.  The bible book of Revelation, written about 95AD, gives a list of things that will signal the coming of an apocalypse.  Revelation 6 tells of a book/scroll in God's right hand that is sealed with seven seals. The Lamb of God/Lion of Judah opens the first four of the seven seals, which summons four beings that ride out on white, red, black, and pale horses. The number of horsemen as four is important, as four is the number associated with creation ( the four living creatures) or the earth (the four winds).

Seven Seals are opened, setting the apocalypse in motion.  In the first Seal,  a white horse appears, whose crowned rider has a bow with which to conquer. (6:1–2)  In early times, this was seen as a positive-the coming of God in this form signaled the victory of Jesus.  Jesus on a white horse is also referenced later in Revelations.  After about 1850, people began believing it was actually descriptive of war and the coming of the antichrist. Napoleon Bonaparte was the first leader to be thought of as “the antichrist”.  Others have been suggested since then, but only in the last seventy years or so has North America started thinking its leadership and potential leadership might apply. Presidents Eisenhower, Nixon, Clinton, George W Bush, Obama and Trump and leadership hopefuls including Hillary Clinton, Ralph Nader and Adlai Stevenson II, have all been suggested as potential antichrists by some group or another.

In the Second Seal, a red horse appears, whose rider has a "great sword". (6:3–4)  The color red, as well as the rider's great sword, suggest that blood is to be spilled.   The sword held upward may represent war or a declaration of war.  This image is seen in heraldry as well as military symbolism.  Swords held upward signify war and entering into battle.  The world has almost always been at war somewhere, but this is symbolic of a “great war” of conflict involving morality, prosperity and spirituality.  More recently, the interpretation has been that this horseman is sent to reclaim Christianity as the only path to righteousness.  In all of these suggestions, the red horse has already made more than its fair share of appearances.

Third Seal gives us a black horse whose rider is carrying "a pair of balances in his hand", and a voice then says, " A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius; but do not damage the oil and the wine.". (6:5–6)  Usually this is understood to be famine, but some interpret him as holding scales of Justice.  Perhaps the famine is to be caused by mishandling of the crops out of greed and ignorance, and the rider’s appearance shows that justice will come.  That justice would likely be, then, in the form of famine.  For a long time, it was the poorest countries who suffered famine.  We have been taught that the people of Africa are especially vulnerable.  Lately though, conversations about US families in poverty and the absolute necessity of free lunches or breakfasts in schools to feed the children have also become more common.  Certainly the issue of hunger in North America can be tied to greed.  Corporate policies and government protections and supports have manipulated the food production significantly.  This is evidenced not only by the existence of hunger in our country, but also by the ever increasing prices on the food that allows us to live.

From the Fourth Seal, a pale horse appears.  This rider is Death, and Hades (which, ironically, is a Pagan belief) follows him. Death is granted a fourth part of earth, “to kill with sword, with hunger, with death, and with the beasts of the earth.” (6:7–8)  This is the only horseman specifically given a name (Death),  His pale skin supports the symbolism.  Some interpretations go on to suggest the pale horse reference is clearly to some great “pestilence” that will come upon the earth after a devastating war, followed by famine and the dead left unburied.  This connects the Revelations prophecy with the book of Ezekiel and the Four Judgments of Jerusalem.  In the Gospel, Matthew tells us it is just the beginning of sorrows.  More than once in the history of the world has death taken a fourth of the earth’s (known) populace, especially in the five known mass extinctions. Perhaps pandemics should also be considered as pestilence with a significant death toll.

The Fifth Seal narrative tells that "Under the altar", appeared the souls of martyrs for the "word of God", who cry out for vengeance. They are given white robes and told to rest until the martyrdom of their brothers is completed. (6:9–11)  It is generally assumed that “their brothers” are initially fellow Jews, but the idea has now expanded to include anyone who has such a strong belief that they would die for it.  These martyred souls were comforted, and told that they should rest for a "little season," sometimes suggested to be about 3½ years.  It would be hard to say whether this has happened already, largely because the reference is so vague.  Most interpret it to mean that the martyrdom comes from a violent death as a result of a conflict.  There are many modern day references among religions that speak of the value of martyrdom.  After the feminism movement, even the “stay at home mom” could be considered a form of martyrdom.  Radical Muslims made every possible reference to the hijackers from 911 being martyrs.  The idea is just too vague to quantify.

The Sixth Seal is a doozy.  Opening that seal brings an earthquake so large that "the sun becomes black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon like blood" (6:12). Then things start to fall from the sky, mountains and islands move, and people hide in caves. (6:15).  Survivors call upon the mountains and the rocks to fall on them, so as to hide them from the "wrath of the Lamb" (6:16).  Another Pagan theology rears its not necessarily ugly head.  From those, 144,000 from the Twelve Tribes of Israel are marked as servants of God on their foreheads (7:1–8)    The Futurist view of this seal will be the literal cosmic disturbances caused by nuclear war or a global earthquake that causes volcanic debris to pollute the atmosphere.  That will turn the moon blood red and the sun dark.  It also foretells massive meteor showers.  The Idealist interpretation is representative of the end of the age when Christ returns.  His return brings upheaval and justice.  There is some validity that this, too, has begun in modern day.  There seems to be a significant increase of seismic activity, including the awakening or emergence of volcanoes that were previously thought to be dead.  While there doesn’t seem to really be an increase in the number of meteor showers, there is certainly a greater awareness of them.  Our connected society often reports on spectacular, reoccurring meteor shows. Up for challenge is the idea that Jerusalem and Judaism in general is enjoying a comfortable amount of global support right now.  In a more literal connection, there are many instances of underground “safety spots”, ranging from the presidential bunker to home basements. 

The Seventh Seal introduces the seven trumpets (8:1–5).  This signals "Silence in heaven for about half an hour" (8:1) which is sometimes interpreted as a 70-year period from Emperor Constantine’s defeat of Licinius (A.D. 324) to Alaric’s invasion of the Roman Empire (395). The prayers are those of the Christians martyred by Rome. The seven trumpets represent the seven judgments that God had in store for the Roman Empire.[17]  Futurists and Idealists have a more positive spin on the passage.  The “silence” is the hush of expectancy (for the verdict on the guilty) as well as the prayers of Christians who will be martyred in the last three and a half years of the “end-time”.  Judgements are thought to be both negative for sinners and positive for the faithful, and a quiet time in heaven to facilitate focus-like the lull before the storm. It is also telling the story of seven trumpets being sounded.  Darkness, hail and devastating fire, the fall of a mountain into the ocean, a star named Wormwood falling and poisoning a third of the water supply, and lots of thunder and lightening are happening until from out of the smoke, locusts arrive.  These have human faces and hair, lion’s teeth, and breastplates of iron.  The sounds of their wings is said to resemble  "the thundering of many horses and chariots rushing into battle" (9:7–9).  At one point, a woman clothed in a white robe, with the sun at her back, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars" who is pregnant with a male child. (12:1–2) That particular image hearkens back to Christ’s birth as well as the goddess mythology of several pagan sects.  A great Dragon (with seven heads) , waits for the birth of the child so he can devour it. His efforts are thwarted, and he ends up waging war against the rest of her offspring, those who are presumably  those who keep the faith and loyalty to God and/or Jesus. The dragon gives power to “A Beast with seven Heads” who emerges from the sea who the people of earth begin to follow.  The Beast has the mark “666” and is a fierce opponent for the believers until the “Lamb” stands on Mount Zion with "first fruits" and is victorious.

This seventh seal has quite a lot it reveals.  Angels, creatures, and even a harlot are represented with various levels of influence.  Eventually the martyrs are resurrected.  Ostensibly all of this happens in the span of a week, but the bible has way of dancing around the literal time frames of most things.  Revelations makes clear, however, that all these things will happen before “the Rapture” where Christians believe they will be collected by God and rewarded with eternal life in heaven.  The locust description brings an image of space travel/UFOs, especially the thunderous wings.  People have long been afraid of the 666, claiming it as the mark of the devil.  Over time, the number has shown up in lots of references from the Molar mass of the high-temperature superconductor to being considered lucky in China.

Are we in the “end times”?  Is there even a real possibility that there is an end to our days? More important to that is whether or not we think we are.  Some welcome the Rapture, others fear it.  Some believe that what happens on earth is all karma.  Regardless of your spirituality, these are strange days indeed.

More Reading:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Horsemen_of_the_Apocalypse

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/apocalypse/revelation/white.html

https://biblescripture.net/Revelation.html

https://www.christianbiblereference.org/faq_kjv.htm

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Revelation+1&version=KJV

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Revelation+1&version=TLB

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_presidential_candidates

https://study.com/academy/lesson/hades-greek-god-of-the-underworld-mythology-lesson-quiz.html

https://theconversation.com/5-periods-of-mass-extinction-on-earth-are-we-entering-the-sixth-57575

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/666_(number)#Other_occurrences

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/what-is-karma_b_1376246

Moral Dilemmas

I was recently offered the opportunity to write for mountaineer.net, a new online news magazine.  The publisher is someone I knew from radio decades ago who I kept track of via facebook.  It turns out he was reading my posts, admired my writing, and made the offer.

I jumped at the chance.  Not for the byline or any other compensation, but for the stability.  A popular, current publication keeps me focused.  In my excitement I've written many, which he's been inundated with.  My other blogs have suffered, but I'm working on that.  Sadly, it's quiet times for Canadian cryptozoology.

In the process of getting reacquainted, I probably over-shared personal information.  I may have told him things about his older brother he didn't know-although I assumed he did, as we all worked together.  In any event, it was back in the 90's and has all been worked through, so it never occurred to me to be embarrassed or that it could possibly be inappropriate.  I don't, in fact, know if he WAS embarrassed, as I haven't heard a word from him since. 

I'm not in panic mode.  I know he is VERY busy and has a family and another job.  I haven't sent him any articles that are inappropriate in any way, as I know the publication has and wants to keep a very clean reputation.  Plus, it's only been a week and during that week there were a million changes due to COVID-19 that affected both our countries.  Mostly, he seems like a good guy with a terrific work ethic.  I think he would tell me if he had a problem or wanted me to stop submitting articles.

It made me think though.  I'm not often involved in professional

things with people from my personal life.  I put that behind me as I matured.  This editor and I were never "involved", and really barely knew each other, so that's not an issue.  But his friendship is kind of important to me right now and I hope I didn't screw that up.  More importantly, I hope outing his brother's choices from 1996-98 doesn't cause a problem with THEIR relationship.

I've presented him with a moral dilemma because I didn't think one of my choices through.  I regret that of course, but it kind of is one of my ongoing personality traits.  I'm also not very good at keeping secrets, so be warned.

The Hits Just Keep on Coming

I typed that in and thought, "I wonder where that came from."  I expected a movie, or a famous person's quote.  Do you remember The Monkees?  Lead singer Michael Nesmith?  Well after the Monkees, he had a solo career, and released an album with this as the name.  This took me down quite a rabbit hole of fascination facts about this prolific musician.

Nesmith was with the Monkees from 1966-1968. During that time he was performing, doing the sitcom, and writing music, all very successfully.  After the break-up of the Monkees, he was with a band called "First National Band" then embraced a solo career.  He had a hit with the song "Joanne" and wrote a hit for Linda Ronstadt called "Different Drum".

 

In 1981, Nesmith won the first Grammy Award given for Video of the Year.  His hour-long television show, Elephant Parts, is a collection of comedy skits and music videos with parody commercials and comedy sketches.  One of the sketches was titled "Tragically Hip" and the Candian band was inspired to name themselves the same although at least one blogger disagrees and I couldn't find a video of the sketch on YouTube.  The show also featured five full-length music videos.

Nesmith was also an executive producer of the cult film Repo Man (1984). It starred Harry Dean Stanton and Emilio Estevez, and was considered one of the best films of that year.  A sequel, Waldo's Hawaiian Holiday, was written but never developed.  A graphic novel was later written by this name, with permission from the original writers.

Nesmith was born in Texas and was parented mainly by his mother, who was occasionally his single parent.  When Nesmith was 13, his mother invented the typewriter correction fluid known as Liquid Paper. She eventually sold the ultimately international company to Gillette in 1979 for $48 million. She died a few months later at age 56.

He quit school and served in the Air Force for two years.  He got his GED, was honorably discharged, and enrolled in San Antonio College.  His mom and stepfather gave him a guitar for his birthday and a star was born.

Nesmith's last contractual Monkees commitment was a commercial for Kool-Aid and Nerf balls in April 1970. 

With sales of Monkees albums declining, Nesmith asked to be released from his contract.  It cost him $450,000,which in 2019 was about the same as $980,940.  He then struggled financially until  he received his inheritance from the Liquid Paper Company. 

"I had to start telling little tales to the tax man while they were putting tags on the furniture."  ~Michael Nesmith

In 2018, Nesmith and Dolenz toured together as a duo for the first time under the banner "The Monkees Present: The Mike and Micky Show".   After an abbreviated start, they cancelled the last four dates  due to Nesmith having to have quadruple bypass surgery. He also contributed two songs for the Monkees' 13th studio album, Christmas Party (the group's first ever Christmas album), released on October 12, 2018.

In 2019, Nesmith and Mickey Dolenz reunited again to make up the cancelled dates of the tour.  They added more dates, including a forthcoming tour of Australia and New Zealand.  The 2020 leg of the tour starts in Vancouver with the release of the new live album on April 3, 2020.  Currently, the last date is in Nashville on April 26.

Bandmate Peter Tork died on February 21, 2019. Michael Nesmith commented that he had just spoken to him on February 13 to wish him a happy 77th birthday.

Peter Tork died this AM. I am told he slipped away peacefully. Yet, as I write this my tears are awash, and my heart is broken. Even though I am clinging to the idea that we all continue, the pain that attends these passings has no cure. It's going to be a rough day.

In 1998, Nesmith published his first novel, The Long Sandy Hair of Neftoon Zamora. Originally developed as an online project, it was later published as a hardcover book by St Martin's Press. His second novel, The America Gene, was released in July 2009.  The Mike And Micky Show Live  is available on CD at Amazon for $14.98. 

Nesmith has been married three times and has four children.  The first was born in 1964, and the youngest was born in 1970.  The middle two were both born in 1968; one with his wife at the time and the other with socialite Nurit Wilde.  He is currently single.Now I forget what today's entry was originally intended to be...

More Reading:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/And_the_Hits_Just_Keep_on_Comin%27https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elephant_Partshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Repo_Man_(film)https://www.monkees.com/https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/the-monkees-2020-tour-911179/https://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/rock/8499445/the-monkees-mourn-peter-tork-deathhttps://www.amazon.com/America-Gene-Michael-Nesmith/dp/1561110000https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nurit_Wildehttp://www.women-inventors.com/Bette-Nesmith-Graham.asp

It Feels Like Death

My son is a dual citizen of Canada and the USA.  He’s not thrilled about being an American.

That should be enough right there to open eyes, but it won’t.

He doesn’t understand my pride in being American and I completely understand that.  I’m not really very proud of my country right now either.  He also doesn’t understand why I am in tears after watching the Senate vote to acquit the President of his horrific betrayal of the office.

I’m crying because I believe in right winning over wrong. I’m crying because I want to believe our leaders to do the right thing, even when it hurts.  I want to believe our Constitution was worth fighting for.  I want to believe that the America my ancestors fought for, that my family paid taxes to, that I hold so tightly to, still exists in some form.

It doesn’t.  My country is dead.  I mourn this loss like that of a cherished family member.  My dreams are dead, my hope is dead, and my faith in people is dead.  The pain is almost unbearable.

If I were a Republican, which I could never be because of a giant gap in beliefs, I would have to have voted to remove Trump from office.  I would have done so because I still have hope and faith in myself as a good American, and a good person.  It isn’t about party.  It’s about knowing an acting on what is right and wrong.  It’s about knowing I have to face my children and grandchildren and explain to them that the Senate vote I just watched was a scar on American history.  It is a day we got it horribly, horribly wrong.

My son got his voter registration card in the mail yesterday.  I was so happy, and so proud.  I’m certain that he will vote against Trump in November.  That is the last thread of hope I have-that my children and their generation can and will fix this.  I’m sorry we hand them such a horrific situation.  I did everything I could to prevent it.  My one vote, and the millions of votes who will join me, will begin repairing my country in November.

In Dreams

What do you dream of?  Not the sleeping or trance like dreams; what sort of seemingly unreachable goals do you have?  I've been

thinking about this a lot since Ontario had a 70 Million dollar lottery a bit ago.

I started thinking of things I DON'T want.  I don't want to travel around the world, but I would like to see Stonehenge, a friend in India, and Cape Town.  I don't want a big house or a fancy car.

So what DO I want?  Hypothetically, if handed 70Mil I'd want a lot.  I'd want to first, put a third of it into some sort of stocks or account so I will always have money.  Then I would buy a car of my own.  Probably a van, actually.Then I'd buy a couple of small homes-three bedroom bungalow type things.  One at the beach in North Carolina, one in my home town,  and one here in Toronto should do it. 

I'd pay off a lot of stuff.  First, mine and hubby's debt, then my girls and our collective parents.  I'd set up small trusts for my grand kids.  I'd hire whomever it took to free Christina Boyer.  I'd build a family history research center in my hometown.  It would be huge, and include hotel type rooms as well as a cafe.  There would be a conference room and a theater stage.  And of  course lots and lots of research resources.  It would be free to use except for housing and food.  I've been dreaming of that for years.

Then I'd give to other charities.  My mom's efforts in South Dakota

would get a bunch of money.  Ronald McDonald House would also get a chunk.  Beyond that, the financial gifts would probably be to individuals.  A single mom can do a lot with a surprise $1000. Many churches need new roofs.  I'd give a few cars to deserving people.  I'd call my friend Diana and see if she still wants to do the center for newly separated women we dreamed of in the early 90's.

I'd do the necessary stuff of course.  I'd hire a housekeeper and an accountant.  I'd find a really good international lawyer.  I'd get my hair done and buy some nicer clothes.  I'd splurge on something Coach.  I'd also need a personal assistant, of course.  I can't keep track of my life now, so I know I couldn't if that lottery win happened.  Then I would take some time and think about what I can help on a bigger stage.  Drug prices are a big problem, as are homelessness and mental health.  I'd find a way to help there too.

I might even splurge on a fancy coffee-latte-cappuccino machine.  Putting a Starbucks in my house seems pretentious.