LUKA-LESS WEDNESDAY

Well, here it is, Wednesday, and we're down in Laguna Beach. We now devote our Wednesdays, as regular readers know, to taking care of our grandson, little Luka, while his mom goes off to work. We'll miss him today.

A couple of months ago we opened a college fund for this little chap, and we'll be saving a little bit each month to help with the cost of his education--no small sum these days already, even at the state colleges and universities! The way things are going, he'll need to be a millionaire in eighteen years time. And won't be able to expect much help from the "government"--if there's any such thing left. Ah, well.

Speaking of government, yesterday was tax preparation day. Having in put in the necessary time to get all the information together, I drove down the coast to visit our CPA for our annual chat and working session. Since Ellie and are are both independent contractors, of a kind, we carefully save up the records of all our business-related expenses to offset the income. I have been doing it for years, in a rather messy but moderately meticulous way, and each year I promise myself that I'll keep the records as we go along so that I won't be left with a box full of receipts to sort out into piles and envelopes, labeled appropriately but all needing still to be added up and totaled. And each year I manage to break that promise to myself.

It's a pain. And yesterday I came to the realization, along with Chris, our friendly CPA, that it's probably not even worth the effort. After all that work, it seems that our carefully collated "itemized deductions" barely make a difference to the whole tax picture anyway. I have been giving myself needless work, perhaps for years, in the stubborn belief that since this is the way I have always done it, this is the way it needs to be done.

How we do cling on to our beliefs! They give us, perhaps, a sense of security--albeit a false one. No matter how much I cling to my old habits, the world will change, along with the circumstances, even when it comes to taxes. What was true and necessary ten years ago is neither true nor necessary today. But I keep acting as though it were. I guess the best thing I can do is have a little laugh at my expense(s!)

Shall we talk about the Supreme Court and its hearings on the individual mandate to purchase health insurance? No, we'd rather not. Except to bemoan the fact that our country seems no more adept than myself in contemplating the need to adapt to the changing circumstances of our rapidly expanding universe. I hate to embarrass myself in public, folks, but--dare I say it?--the Constitution, like the Bible, is just a piece of paper.