Did you eat your black-eyed peas?

Have you eaten your black-eyed peas yet? Did you get plenty of them? I didn’t get quite as big of a portion as I intended, but we found some. The weather had us up in Enid an extra day, so we enjoyed lunch at Golden Corral. Yeah, we’re getting old. Enjoying that senior discount. Soon, we’ll be searching for the “Early Bird Special.” 

You’re supposed to eat black-eyed peas to ensure a prosperous New Year. Just about everybody is looking for that, and hoping for a better 2015. Say, have you heard about Grumpy Cat? His picture is everywhere! Tabitha Bundeson, a waitress in Arizona, owns the cat, whose feline dwarfism and overbite results in a permanent grumpy appearance. The cat’s pictures and captions have gone viral. Grumpy Cat merchandise is popular, and a corporation founded to handle it is now worth a million dollars. Ms Bundeson has taken a leave of absence from her job at Red Lobster in order to manage the corporation. Her earnings were in the “low six figures” as of mid 2013. I wonder if they served lots of black-eyed peas at Red Lobster?

Wealth is a gift from God, but it comes with a caveat: Do not wear yourself out to get rich; have the wisdom to show restraint. Cast but a glance at riches, and they are gone, for they will surely sprout wings and fly off to the sky like an eagle. —Proverbs 23:4, 5.

Unearned wealth can disappear quickly. A British study of modest lottery winners revealed that 44% of them are broke again within a few years of their windfalls. Other studies done in the States says happiness doesn’t necessarily follow wealth. Often major accident victims are just as happy as lottery winners after a few years. Note that Ms Bundeson still has her old job on hiatus. Smart girl!