While eating at the Mellow Mushroom (Side note: The Mellow Mushroom has REALLY good pizza. However, I knew I was going to like the place upon walking in the door - even if the food sucked. How did I know? Pink Floyd was playing on the restaurant sound system. Now, any eating establishment that plays Pink Floyd on the sound system is OK in my book because Pink Floyd is only the best group, EVER!) Anyway, back to the story..
While eating at the Mellow Mushroom, I needed to go to the little girls' room. So in I went and on the bathroom door was graffiti. Not your everyday run-of-the-mill graffiti, like I HEART Vol Fan! 4-EVER!!. No, this graffiti was thought provoking, asking one simple question.
What would you do if money were no object?
Now beyond all the house-building, car-buying, and traveling answers, what would you do with the rest of your time? Because house-building, car-buying, and traveling would eventually stop and then what would you do?
Would you fritter your life away, like Paris Hilton?
Would you let the money go to your head and go down the path of drugs and alcohol, like so many celebrities?
Would you try to not change a thing in your life, other than maybe helping your children and your community more?
Would you be imaginative enough to see the potential of all that money and really put it to work, literally changing the world?
Vol Fan has always said that he would come up with a program to help small businesses - through loans, through teaching management skills, etc.
I have often thought about this and had never been able to come up with anything useful that would drive me. I finally came up with something. I would start a program to help the working un-insured or under-insured to have access to medical screenings, like mammograms and colonoscopies.
For a whole lot of years, Vol Fan and I did not have medical insurance. We were on the 'let's just hope we don't get sick' program. Because we worked, we did not qualify for the state medical aid program and the jobs we worked did not offer insurance.
Now we are not the type to go to the doctor at the drop of a hat. Case in point, my shoulder. Hurt it bad enough to require surgery to repair - however, I did not go to the doctor for 3 months after the injury had occurred. Thankfully, we have been blessed with good health.
So once we started earning enough money to afford insurance, we were floored at the cost. We have a policy with a huge deductible ($5000.00 each) and we still pay around $350 per month!! But even with insurance (and yes, it does have a wellness program that it is supposed to cover things like mammograms), they don't cover all the annual preventative stuff. They put a very minimal dollar limit on the wellness program - it is barely enough to pay for my annual visit to the gynecologist. So mammograms fall squarely on my shoulders.
Personally, I think this is just wrong. Catching breast cancer early is the main key for survival! But I guess my survival is not their concern. So that is where my path would lead if money were no object.
3 comments:
I feel bad that after a really nice post, the only thing I could focus on was the Mellow Mushroom. You must be from the south. I believe there was a Mellow Mushroom where I went for my first year of college in Georgia! Haven't thought of that place in ages. Thanks!
Interesting post. And, like alice, I, too, came away with a craving for pizza and Pink Floyd music---possibly while being stoned.
Seriously, tho, I like to think I'd do something good with the money. Probably something to do with animals. But that would come after I bought my gold-encrusted throne.
Gosh, that's a hard question. I would want to do so many things. Of course, I would first help everyone in my family. Like you, I would like to help the uninsured. Children and the elderly, abused women, the abused in general, the uneducated, the hungry, and single mothers get back on their feet. And finally, save the environment any way I can.
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