A Different New Rich: Five of Pentacles

A homeless man salutes the sun. I salute him and G-d salutes us because G-d really does love poor people. He doesn’t have a choice. If you don’t have money, you must have love, it’s the law. If you have love and a little money (enough so that you don’t have to live in Penn Station), consider yourself part of the “new rich.” Not like those guys that turn the hotel lobby into their office and drink a million cold brew coffees with house-made raw almond milk. A different kind of new rich.

1. When you’re part of the new rich, the world is still at your fingertips. You could get depressed because you live paycheck to paycheck, have millions in credit card debt, trillions in student loan debt and pending ObamaCare, but you don’t because who cares? You have love, and when you have love, everything is possible. It is possible that one day you will be paid just for being you. A real animal of G-d.

2. You love the feeling that one day, everything will change. Your grandpa will finally win the lottery; your straight A sister will graduate business school, quickly work her way to the 1% and buy you a humble house on the beach. She won’t even make you feel bad about it. Or, you will write a book that turns into a movie and buy your own humble house on the beach.

3. You still have time to figure out how not to be a rich jerk. You wait tables and take note of all the things you vow to never do and things you must start doing right this minute. Like treating everyone with respect, remembering that everyone you speak to deserves eye contact, and absolutely no one is below you. You also develop a strange sympathy for rich jerks.

4. Your gratitude bucket is filling at rapid speeds. You cry in the bathtub for the abundance that is already present in your life and say corny things like “look at this bounty, G-d is good,” when you put away groceries. You enjoy walking to save $2.50 on a Metro swipe because you know one day you won’t have to and you still will. 83% of the time you’re so grateful for family meal at work, except when it’s leftover fish spines and cheesy oatmeal, because you’re not perfect.

5. Suddenly you have goals even though you hate goals. You’re brushing your teeth twice a day and turning your homework in five days early. You hardly recognize yourself.  But you want to live the life you imagined and now it feels possible. You want to buy your dad a sports car because you love him. So, with a lot of love and a little money, you head confidently in the direction of your dreams.

January Prediction (The Five of Pentacles): I don’t need to tell myself: at least you don’t live in Penn Station; at least you have love and G-d and food. Or that: this is just a phase and things will start to look up by month’s end. Okay, I do need to tell myself all of those things. It's nice to see the Five of Pentacles to know I'm not crazy for feeling the way I feel. This is all a part of life.