The Gold Standard

I know that we are in bad economic times this time because gold is up and the dollar is down. I first learned that gold was up when my friend Jodee, owner and Chef of the World Famous Breakfast Club, told me the other day that he had converted everything to gold. He sounded frustrated yet satisfied when he announced this. My dear friend John O’Neill did not seem to care about this information as he continued breaking the law while having his first cup of coffee. I checked out the silverware which was, well, still silver so I wasn’t sure what to make of Jodee’s announcement. So I did what I always do when he starts talking politics. I ignored him.

Then tonight I was watching the news and, sure enough, gold is setting record levels and the dollar is down. Jodee, who is a great chef, businessman, fisherman, family man, and friend, took all of his investments, cashed them in and bought gold. Whatever losses he had incurred by cashing in investments based upon the dollar, he was quickly earning back.

“Damn!” I cursed while Brian Williams informed me of Jodee’s genius, “why didn’t I listen to him?”

I already knew the answer. Jodee’s politics are just to the right of Attila the Hun, and I’m normally listening to him before I finish my first cup of coffee. It’s hard to listen to anybody before you finish your first cup of coffee. Sure, Jodee’s been up since 2:30 and is primed but I’m still stumbling around.

Anyway, I stopped what I was doing and stared at Brian Williams as he delivered the news. Then I laughed and said out loud, “Good for Jodee!”

Then my mind flashed back to something from the morning. Keller Deal and I were at Bethesda where Jeff Walker was showing us the rough cut of the third installment of Union Mission’s television show IMPACT (check it out on the FB fan page or group page or through www.unionmission.org). Jeff oversees an incredible program that teaches the boys to make a career in video production. The kids produce our show.

Anyway, we watched as Keller interviewed Letitia Robinson who oversees Union Mission’s housing programs. Beside Letitia was Gail Odom, case manager at Grace House, the emergency housing programs for men. Letitia was saying that homelessness has changed. It used to be everyone had mental illness, addiction issues, no marketable skills or such, but now it was people who had just lost their jobs. After that it was just a matter of time before they lost their housing. I nodded as she said this. I’d seen it too.

Jeff continued showing Keller and I the show which was also filled with interviews of people who had been working and living somewhere just a short time ago but were now…homeless. Jeff stopped at one point and pointed at the screen. “Watch this,” he commanded. We did, and Stephen explained, “I was working and living with my girlfriend. Then I lost the job and there was no money. Then I lost the girlfriend and then there was no housing. Then I was … homeless.”

Again I nodded. It is way too common. We continued watching as another face took Stephen’s place and described how frightened he was when he first came to Grace House but then other men who had been there for a while showed him acts of kindness. They told him how to be comfortable and who to stay away from. Then he went on to explain how he is no longer homeless but he returns to Grace House so that he can return the acts of kindness that were bestowed on a frightened man spending his first night in a homeless shelter.

It’s a different kind of gold standard, I found myself thinking. People were freely giving the only thing that they had to give, their experience. They had nothing else to give so they gave of themselves and others were better off because of it.

It’s a different kind of gold standard. I do not think that one is more valuable than the other. Then again, I think that I do.