the cost of money

the following is an article i found and felt provides a good example of what happens when greed and anger go unchecked

PHILADELPHIA - A 1971 painting by fantasy artist Frank Frazetta has sold for $1.5 million, two months after the Pennsylvania artist's death.

Frazetta's managers said this week that a private collector bought \"Conan the Destroyer\" from a family trust. Managers Robert Pistella and Stephen Ferzoco call it the price the highest ever for a work by Frazetta.

The illustrator died in Florida in May at age 82. His iconic illustrations of Conan the Barbarian, Tarzan and other characters often graced comic books, album covers and movie posters.

In recent years, his children have fought over an estate estimated to be worth tens of millions of dollars.

The feud boiled over in December when Frank Frazetta Jr. used a backhoe to try to break into the artist's museum in the Pocono Mountains.

as an artist i've never been fond of creating something with the sole intent of profiting from it, of course i'm one of the few that still do all my drawings and sketches by hand and don't use any computer alterations,but that's a whole other tangent there.

the purpose of this post is to show what happens when money becomes the driving force in one's life. here we have an artist (a great one at that) whose estate is worth quite a bit financially. once he died his own children begin fighting amongst themselves over his estate. brothers and sisters thrown against each other because of wealth(or the potential for it).

greed is destroying a family. in this current economy it's understandable that any means of increasing money can help one's situation out,but at what cost? worst yet is that greed is creating anger. these children(they are children for their behavior) have forgotten what is really important. they fight when they should mourn, they see dollar signs when they should see each other....if i was the one in this situation i would not be selling off my legacy(though i might have considered donating it somewhere). instead of committing to family they are committing crimes.

i'm not saying money is evil or dark, many good things can come from it, what i'm pointing out is that when it becomes our driving force we can become blinded and lose sight of what's really important. a little money is a good thing, hoarding it to excess(or greed) is not....one can live quite well in moderation, why own a 10 bedroom home if you live alone? greed and fear of loss are the roots that lead to the tree of evil. uncontrolled anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering...the family in this article is suffering....

Anything, that becomes an obsession, can be detrimental.

My dad died a year ago this Monday. (26th of July) His wife, my sister, and I were the beneficiaries to the little he had.

I did not want anything. We were not close, although we had been working on it. A little something to remember him by, (which his wife bought my sister and I wood crosses and little vials to keep his ashes in. Good enough for me). I brought home a small box of stuff for my sister and I to divide, but there were some larger things his wife kept.... ok by me..

A will popped up, signed before he married this woman, stating everything of his, was his kids, ours. Ah, crap...

I called this woman, to let her know this had happened, someone had filed it, (I was furious it had been filed). She thought/thinks we were out to get everything.

I cannot speak for my sister, but I wanted nothing. She took care of my father in his last years, she should get everything (short of a couple of momentos, as i said and SHE gave to me).

Fourtunatly, Colorado law is like Illinois, in that a surviving spouse gets the estate (whew).

We were not close. But after his death, I talked to his wife (they got married when I was in my mid-thirties, can't call her step-mom with a serious face), a couple of times.

I tried to call her for her birthday last month. Phones been disconnected. Weird, I thought. But, ok, I'll try the cell. Her nephew answered, saying she gave him the phone and moved back to New Mexico, Arizona, whereever she was from, I forgot, my wife knows.

No phone number, no address, he tells me.

Weird... she was a little weird anyway, but, really?

So... what caused this seperation? I'll get along fine. I hope she will as well, I think she will.

Was it the feeling that we wanted everything, and were going to leave her nothing?
I don't know...

But, it still makes me sad.......

People are funny..... Gotta laugh......

when my dad(stepdad actually) died a few years ago he had told me that he wanted me to have everything and to divide it up evenly between us. he said he wanted me to do it because he knew i would and that i wouldn't just get rid of things.

unfortunately because he wasn't my biological father i had no legal claims without a written will(which he had tried to write but could never finish without crying) in the end my sister(half sister) wound up with everything except for his rifle and the 66 powerwagon that i have(which i paid for anyway)so basically i wound up with just the rifle, which i was later forced to sell so eventually i wound up with nothing....

recently the properties that were left have now been foreclosed on(i have no idea what my sister did with the mortgage money i was paying, and against my advice she refinanced and took out a second mortgage) so i have to find a new home.

part of me feels like i should be angry and bitter to her, but i don't instead i simply feel pity for the rest of my family, i'm used to having very little if anything, and my dad...the last few years before he died was doing everything he could to make sure we wouldn't be without anything....part of me feels like a failure because i wasn't able to fulfill his final wish(which was to make sure the family didn't lose anything he left behind) all i can do is remind myself that the laws of the land stripped me of any authority over the whole thing and fighting family over it would get me no where....instead all i can do is pity them for having squandered my dad's legacy....i'm curious to see what they do with the money once the avandia lawsuit settles.....

Ryu...

If you keep the pleasant memories, you have lost nothing but material objects... (I know you know this, but just in case)....

That is why I didn't want any of the material objects....

For a long time, like many sons will say about their fathers, we didn't see eye to eye...

\"I'm a man\", I screamed. \"Almost,\" he said.

Finally, I got it... like most lessons, too little, too late...
.....
.....

Latly, I find myself telling stories about my dad.... mostly the funny ones.... every once in a while, the not-so-funny ones.....

Still, they were all pretty good memories.....