Three hours plus previews. Whew! The Wolf of Wall Street was exhausting, exhilarating, impressive and appalling. I didn’t leave my seat, couldn’t miss any of the incredible performances by Leonardo Dicaprio and Jonah Hill, nor the nauseatingly true story line.

Certainly a must see for anyone who needs encouragement to keep their hard earned coin close at hand. Wall Street, Las Vegas and The Lottery all have one goal:  to get the money from your pocket, into theirs.  All of the above institutions are brilliant and relentless in their marketing quest to achieve their goal.  They feed on an emotional emptiness they can smell from miles away.  They graduated at the top of their class in sales, and they are closers.  Despite promises of dreams fulfilled, their end goal is to line their pockets with someone else’s money.   Yes, a tiny number of folks will benefit from their scams, and the pushers will glorify and leverage such events accordingly.

Yet even if you do find the golden ticket, statistics show that over time, not only does the money escape one’s grasp, but recipients who win financial windfalls rarely find perpetual success, self-worth, or happiness.  It is impossible to sustain a feeling through external means. You have to find it within yourself.  You may win a race, and bathe in the glory of success, but that feeling is fleeting.  To achieve the sensation again, you’ll have to win again and win more.  For enduring results, one must learn to generate the feeling independently.   So how about we stay put and generate our own wealth?

The Wolf of Wall Street painted a clear and colorful picture of wall streeters’ soulless hunger for riches, sex, and drugs and satisfying that huger required the conquest of innumerable feckless marks. Rather than jump on their bandwagon in hopes of dining at their tasteless table of unearned riches, how about we keep our money here in Vermont?

Invest in our homes, our land, our townships, our education.  Pay off debt.  Create art.  Make something that causes an audience, a family member, or a passerby to feel, participate and connect.  Rather than giving our power, our money, our space and our energy away to distant predators, lets challenge ourselves to stand up and stand strong and chart our own course,  according to our own values.  This is our home and we know best.  Own that knowledge and never let anyone take it away from you.  Again and again, the sheep will be taken advantage of.  Don’t be sheep.  Hold your ground and stand proud of our unique state. Together we are strong and we have great depth of soul. Viva 802!