At the Tipping Point - a personal history

 I am aware I'm supposed to be writing about something relaxing this first month of 2025. But if you've read any of my other posts, you probably already know that I tend to wander off target. This is you're warning that I'll be doing the same for most of this year.

 I have lived a long life. A very long life. During those endless decades I've watched the evolution - expansion - mutation of the tiping culture. I'm not old as dirt, so I wasn't't around when tipping was first invented. But I do remember when the standard tip was ten percent. And that was for great and timely service. The wait staff arrived at your table with a smile and a pot of coffee so hot steam rose as they filled your cup. They never messed up orders, kept water glasses filled and cheerfully replenished the coffee cups. You never had to ask for butter for your bread or cream for your coffee. They were serious about customers, and, in return, for many customers that ten percent was only a starting point.

Decades passed. I looked up one day and realized the standard had grown to fifteen percent. Some restaurants had little cheat sheets for those too mathematically impaired to calculate the fifteen percent on their own.  Smart phones with calculators were not yet a thing. [I realize some millennials are having trouble visualizing the world I describe, but I promise it was real."

I rolled with the flow. As a girl who always loved math, and who ended up working as a computer analyst in a Fortune 100 company, I never had trouble doing the math in my head, easy-peasy. As long as I got good service, they got their tip.

The next step in evolution was the twenty percent mark. Suddenly things were serious. Customers began voicing annoyance at the whole tipping concept. More people were expecting tips as their right. The friendly server was disappearing, replaced by unhappy workers who used social media to inform customers they shouldn't go out to eat if they could not afford to add on that twenty percent. I fell in on the side of customers who feel that restaurants should not list artificially low prices on the menu when they expect customers to routinely pay more to support their workers salaries. Obviously they restaurants must be overflowing with customers so they can afford to keep doing this.

Things are worse now. Apparently some feel the standard tip should be thirty percent [twenty-five was completely bypassed]. As  a result, I have not eaten in a restaurant in over a year. It's not a protest. I doubt my absence has been noticed. It's not about money, either, I have money for a tip. Just no incentive to keep patronizing this business model. Even when my daughter and her boyfriend offered to take me out to eat over the holidays, I chose not to go out to eat. 

I agree that servers have a right to a living wage. But I don't agree that their employers should expect customers to make up the pay they won't give. In the back of my head I still hold the childish belief that tipping should be my choice, a reward for great service. Not a requirement because the boss pays sub-minimum wage.

The Many Faces of Abundance

 by Courtney Pierce

How many of you slogged through the 1980s with the rich impropriety of prime-time soap operas? I certainly did, and I even recorded them on VHS tapes for the privilege of watching these scoundrels over and over again. Remember Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous, Dallas, Falcon Crest, and Dynasty? Many of these TV programs were designed to make us envy lavish lifestyles and cheer on the cat fights for whose power superseded money. Oh, how I loved when those scoundrels who got their comeuppance for greed, dishonesty, manipulation, and fraud. But they looked so good in their designer outfits, coiffed hair, and diamond earrings.

Wickedly delicious.

We’ve been trained from birth that being rich is about having a lot of money. It's been promoted, by design, as a way to polarize us as people. The more you earn, the more you're cheated out of it: through income taxes, property taxes, sales taxes, endless fees, higher interest rates, and increased cost of goods and services. If the elite can get rid of the pesky, free-thinking middle class, then they'll enjoy ultimate power and control over the minions.

So they believe. But they underestimate people's ability awaken to the truth.

As the saying goes, there are two happy days for the "uber elite": the day when they buy a boat or a plane, and the day they sell it when their knees get whacked. Luxuries can easily become burdens when life takes a downturn.

But what if money becomes worthless? Then what?

Think Venezuela. It used to be a country of abundance: awesome food, and resource independence, Its citizen enjoyed a vibrant economy, just like the USA a mere two years ago. Under the current tyrannical government, Venezuelans roll barrels full of worthless cash into the store just to get a loaf of bread—if a loaf of bread is available. The working people are forced to eat birds, rats, cats, and dogs to get sustenance. Their de-valued currency means nothing. 

Somehow, though, the government elites have lights, fresh food, and lavish homes behind walls and fences. Average citizens burn furniture to keep warm and live in the dark after sunset.

But the people are fighting back. They've had enough of the corruption. And they're making progress.

Here in Montana, there are a plethora of millionaires and billionaires among the working folk, farmers, and ranchers. Some earned their wealth. Others inherited it. To be honest, you wouldn't know who's who. They all dress the same.

People are moving to Montana from all over the world, hence our skyrocketing housing prices and rents. The building rate is crazy as people want be here to protect their wealth and freedom. We’re one of those desired free states. We don’t wear masks. We don’t mandate the VAX, and we don’t poison kids with divisive racism. We love this country and its Constitution, and we truly respect our fellow man, no matter how much money they do or don't have. We wouldn't know, anyway, because everyone looks the same. We're just people.

The vistas are amazing here, without a doubt. Glacier National Park is a national treasure and is only a stone’s throw away. Yellowstone National Park is only a few hours further. This state cradles an abundance of Nature’s bounty. This is the abundance we moved here to enjoy. We hike the trails in boots and backpacks, and we rough it in the wild in tents. We all yearn for the hooves of the mountain goats pounding through the campsite in the middle of the night.

But there’s a higher truth in our abundance as humans.

The real skivvy is that we're all born with abundance of benevolence in our DNA, aka "God Genes.' We’re actually magical beings that have telepathy and a deep understanding of the universe. But humans have been hijacked. Over the centuries, we’ve been dumbed down: our food and water purposely poisoned, our minds manipulated by mainstream media and school, and our money stolen by the Federal Reserve to keep us indebted. Abundance was reserved for only the chosen few, far above the one-percent.

Many shocking truths will be exposed in the coming months. And what if average Americans become very wealthy as a result of having their moral compass on a benevolent spiritual path? It's like winning the lottery. Some acquire and give; others squander and consume. We still have a little free will to make decisions.

There's actually science to back up the premise.

Intuition and telepathy are gifts that are centered in our pineal gland, a precious bodily organ at the base of our brain that functions as our “third eye.” It governs our connection to spirituality and intuition. Over the decades, this gland has been purposely calcified by fluoride: in our water, in our toothpaste, and in the treatments at our dental visits. Why? We were willing sheep with our ignorance from misinformation. There are those who don't want us to have these gifts.

Conspiracy theories are now confirmed conspiracies. That's only the start.

There is good news! The world is waking up to the many, many lies that have been fed to us on a slow drip over the years. Some may be able to handle them, others may not.

As people, the real abundance we all have, no matter the amount of our income, is our intuition, our heart, and our benevolence. Those we love, and those who love us, are precious beyond anything we can purchase. Moreover, we are able to pay attention to our inner voice when “something’s not right.” Trust that your moral compass is straight on point.

As the holidays are upon us, we must pause to take stock of our many abundances, especially with the people we love. There may still be a stall of the supply chain for Christmas, but the day isn't about presents; it's about giving of ourselves to others. Personally, I have everything I need: the love of my husband, my sisters, my in-laws, my step children, and step grandchildren. I want their world to be as good to them as mine has been to me.

My new prized investment is our garden. We raise our own vegetables, garlic, herbs, and potatoes. We hunt for elk and venison to fill the freezer. We will bring our bounty indoors this winter with a mini greenhouse. Our goal is to control our food supply—free of additives or chemicals.

We’ll heat our home through the winter with cords of wood. And when spring arrives with the retreat of the ice-melt on the lake, we’ll have fresh fish, along with the beauty of iris and tulips.

That’s abundance to us.

Courtney Pierce is a fiction writer living in Kalispell, Montana with her husband and stepdaughter. She writes for the baby boomer audience. She spent 28 years as an executive in the entertainment industry and used her time in a theater seat to create stories that are filled with heart, humor, and mystery. She studied craft and storytelling at the Attic Institute and has completed the Hawthorne Fellows Program for writing and publishing. Active in the writing community, Courtney is a board member of the Northwest Independent Writers Association and on the Advisory Council of the Independent Publishing Resource Center. She is a member of Willamette Writers, Pacific Northwest Writers Association, and Authors of the Flathead. The Executrix received the Library Journal Self-E recommendation seal.

Print and E-books are available through most major online retailers, including Amazon.com.

Check out all of Courtney's books: 

courtney-pierce.com and windtreepress.com 

New York Times best-selling author Karen Karbo says, "Courtney Pierce spins a madcap tale of family grudges, sisterly love, unexpected romance, mysterious mobsters and dog love. Reading Indigo Lake is like drinking champagne with a chaser of Mountain Dew. Pure Delight."

Coming in 2022!

When Aubrey Cenderon moves to Montana after the death of her father, the peace and quiet of Big Sky Country becomes complicated with a knock on the door from the sheriff. An injured grizzly bear is on the loose and it must be eliminated before it kills again. The sheriff's insistence that she buy a gun for protection will present Aubrey with some serious soul-searching, because the grizzly-on-the-run is hunting her too . . . for a different reason.

Jangle in the pocket...

Change – noun - coins as opposed to paper currency: a handful of loose change.

In case you’ve never visited my home and native land, or have not been exposed to our currency, here is a brief overview of the money in my coin purse, i.e. the loose change.

The coin with the smallest monetary value is the five-cent piece, also called a nickel. (We stopped using the one cent piece, the penny, in 2013.)

The “tails” side of the coin features the mighty beaver, source of wealth for fur traders and their bosses in the UK. Beaver skins were widely used in the hat and coat trade, and a secretion produced by the buck-tooth critters, castoreum, was and is used in medicine and perfume. 

On all our coins, the “heads” side displays a profile portrait of Queen Elizabeth II. 

Next in value is the ten-cent piece, the dime, with a depiction of the fabled Bluenose schooner. 

Launched in 1921 from a shipyard in my little town of Lunenburg, the vessel was used for fishing as well as racing for the coveted Fisherman’s Trophy, which it held for 17 years. The original Bluenose sank in 1946 and a replica, the Bluenose II, was launched from the same shipyard in 1963 as a culture and tourism ambassador.

For the longest time, the largest coin in size and value widely circulated (there is a 50-cent coin but it's rarely seen in use), was the 25-cent piece, the quarter. 

The “tails” side of this coin typically depicts the profile of the mighty moose, the largest species in the deer family, and the symbol that represents Canada’s native wildlife. Moose can be found in every region of the country, except for the Arctic. 

Occasionally, commemorative quarters are issued with different “tails” sides.

In 1987, the dollar coin, or loonie, was entered into circulation as a cost saving measure, and the paper dollar bill was taken out of circulation in 1989.

The loonie is slightly larger than the quarter. The “tails” of the eleven-sided loonie depicts a loon on a lake with an evergreen forest in the background, a scene I enjoy every summer on our camping trips to Kejimkujik National Park.

Following on the success of the loonie, the Canadian government got rid of the two-dollar bill and replaced it with the two-dollar coin called the toonie in 1996.

Slightly larger than the loonie, the two-tone coin features a polar bear designed by the artist Brent Townsend.

Here are the old paper one-dollar and two-dollar bills we had framed, just for fun.

I hope we hang on to the rest of our paper money because all those coins are heavy!