An Unexpected Benefit

According to the Social Security Administration in 2007, I have been totally and permanently disabled since 2003. I did not know that I was disabled and continued to try to work with rather disastrous results to my health.

Thus, I have lived on very little money since my savings ran out in 2005; since then I have learned the ways of the poor. One of those is what an economist told me is called opportunity cost. It’s really quite simple: all resources are limited. When one decides to use a resource in one way, another way is blocked. That’s what I have done this month.

Twice last month I pawned my guitar at 240% APR. With the help of dear friends from Indianapolis, I retrieved it from the pawnshop the first time. I pawned it a second time at the end of the month because I was out of food and gasoline; I had an appointment at the V.A. hospital to have my hearing aids repaired and I did not want to break it becuase I had no fuel and have to wait another three months for another appointment to be able to hear again. I figured that I could retrieve it when my Social Security check arrived on August 3^rd.

Like so much in life these days, that plan went down the drain.  Due to my low income, I am exempt from paying the $8.00/month/prescription co-pay required by the Veterans Administration. Until last year, I did not realize that the VA took into my account medical costs as deductions from one’s income; so, prior to 2011 I was paying the $8.00/month/prescription co-pay required by the Veterans Administration.

At the end on 2010 I still owed the VA some of that co-pay and have been paying off the debt at what I could afford: $20.00/month. However, for a VA employee with a strong German accent named Hilda in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, that wasn’t fast enough. So she had the Treasury Department hold the reminder that I owed plus an extra $29.00 to Treasury for the privilege to do so from my August Social Security check. (VA still cashed my $20.00 August payment check; I wonder if I’ll ever have that money returned?)

Sooooo, the VA made an opportunity cost decision for me. I cannot retrieve my guitar from the pawnshop and pay my Direct-TV bill. Since the guitar is valued at close to $3,000.00 (and I love to pay it) I have chosen to retrieve that and let the TV go until next month.

Of course, Direct-TV has canceled my service until I pay the bill. That is the unexpected benefit of this fiasco. With no TV to numb my brain this month, I have been reading—reading a lot. I have read mysteries by Agatha Christie, Georges Simeon, Ellery Queen, Raymond Chandler, Dorothy Sayers, Rex Stout, and Ngaio Marsh. I have read from Malachy McCourt’s anthology, The Voices of Ireland.

And, most uniquely, I have begun reading again The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge by Carlos Castanda. I say “most uniquely” because with this reading I have gained just enough wisdom to begin to understand the book.

So, thank you Hilda in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, with the difficult to understand (even for one who speaks a bit the deutschsprachlich) German accent. You have blessed me with an unexpected and marvelous benefit.

The Teachings of Don Juan by Carlos Castanada