The Curious Case of the Spiritual Gangster

In an Increasingly well traveled world, the Barter Economy and Go-Givers Harvest the highest rewards, knowledge and Information.

The Why:

Travel is one of the greatest gifts you can give to yourself, because of the people you meet and the experiences you have, if you are open minded. In the past, I've written about how The Singing Cerveza Salesman who won my business, today I am going to write about how being generous with what you have can get you the experience of a lifetime.

The Story:

This story took place over the St. Patrick's day Weekend in Memphis, Tennessee. The name's will be changed as always. All events take place in and around Beale Street.

We Started on

Enjoyed a Parade of Boll Weavels, Shriners, Cruella DeVille Cars, and Memphis Grizzlies:

After the parade, we found ourselves at Silky O'Sullivans which was crowded and an amazing experience where I got to partake in a magical bucket. The experiences that this magical bucket called a "Diver" never stopped ceasing to amaze me. It caught eyes and attention, it was communal, and it brought people into our circle that will forever be friends for the rest of time. Our circle grew. The contents of this bucket could be traded, not for currency but for value. The value of a good time. As the day progressed on the contents of the bucket seemed to dwindle but sometimes people would share their time with us and somehow the bucket never seemed to get truly empty. The more we shared, the more a magical haze overtook me, that can only be described as the beginning of the magic of St. Patrick's Day.

The Magical Bucket:

Being from Nashville, TN, I wanted to drop in and say hey to my neighbors at Tin Roof in Memphis because I've been a fan of the Original Tin Roof on Demonbreun for as long as I'm allowed to legally remember.

Here begins the tale of how a pair of Ray-Bans magically passed over two of my close friends and led the spiritual gangster into my life. During the day I was wearing my glasses and couldn't wear my sunglasses. So my first friend wanted to borrow them, of course this is no problem! "J," now with a pair of sunglasses was able to meet "A." "A" had a pair of sunglasses that "J" was able to keep up with because a silly leprechaun kept knocking the sunglasses off A's head. So now my Ray-Bans were able to be commandeered by my good brother Forrester. Forrestor wore my shades until the sun had set and I had my contacts in.

These magical sunglasses were able to lead J and Forrester to their own spiritual gangsters, they had finally come to rest back on my head with one last task: find me a spiritual gangster.

Though my day had been arduous and my feet were calloused, I was not giving up hope to find a true intellectual conversation. The attempts throughout had been many, yet none were fruitful. Since Tin Roof in Nashville was familiar territory for me, Tin Roof on Beale Street quickly became a comfort zone in which I thrived. I introduced myself to some staff and sent regards from Tin Roof in Nashville.

The Dance floor seemed fun, but not this late, my spirit was dwindling and I needed a few more carbohydrates anyway. Returning inside, I found my way upstairs, I found my friends J, N, A, K, B, and Forrester up here!

How Amazing, the Magical Bucket and Sunglasses re-united us! I made more friends, a Real Estate Agent, an Attorney, and an interesting gentleman who's name I never got. But alas, the spirits were not in my favor... yet. All of these conversations were great, but none of them truly enlightening and all ended too soon.

That's when the wind shifted the tide and led me to Elle. Elle was tall, which I liked. She also seemed to be fairly un-amused with her current accompaniment. We hit it off pretty quickly with polite complements traded. Elle had an amazing story being from Hawaii originally, and you don't hear that very often! She Also had a Carmen San Diego thing going on especially since I think she mentioned having lived there, in fact it's where she started her company. I had to know more, why was she in Memphis? Was she merely visiting or did she live there? Elle actually moved her start up from San Diego to Memphis to catch a big Fish and as a salesman myself, I appreciated the willingness to travel, plus it made huge business sense. As the magic of the night increasingly took hold of the atmosphere, the Altruistic Leprechauns moved the magic hands of time and place. The Spiritual Gangster hat was of significant importance to Elle. Perhaps, perhaps not. I will never know.

The Hat:

The Curious Case of the spiritual gangster

But I do know that the exchange of ideas and thoughts in not only English but in Spanish as well was worth more than any classical education could buy. To read more on how to get more from your education while travelling abroad and the significance of learning a second language, read my article about Staying Healthy while Travelling Abroad. 

Before Hailing a ride, Elle and I exchanged items in order to guarantee we would re-unite at a future point. The Spiritual Gangster hat that she had placed such High Value on and my Ray bans which I didn't pay anywhere near to full price for were traded.

I valued very much my sunglasses because of the magic that they were able to work for my brothers and for me, so I wonder what magic and good fortune will bring because of the Highly Valued hat? Stay Tuned for the update of when the Spiritual Gangster Strikes again! Elle and Myself had exchanged so much information and generosity; however, it was time for me to retire to my room for the night. Elle was awaiting a friend anyway and I urgently needed a change of socks.

So I hailed a Lyft home and had one more amazingly intelligent altruistic conversation with my Driver, T. Fortunately, due to the wonders of technology I was able to get word of my brothers whereabouts and that Elle had finally reunited with her friend.

The Moral

What this whole story comes down to is this, that even though currency is simply a means of exchange, true value can be found from meaning, conversation, and experience.

Through true friendship, kind acts, and generosity, you can truly have an amazing time. As Eric Weinstein said in a Joe Rogan Podcast, "Take something simple like a harmonica" something completely unexpected and using it in a different way "Something you get as a party favor as a kid" he continues "There's 4 secrets and suddenly the world opens up" ... "There's so small a number of secrets and you have to have a reason." "They're small financial options, you can exercise them or you can not exercise them."

 Body language is the language of the world, and that's a tale for another day.


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Defining the Frugal Lifestyle

Frugality is more than just buying cheap stuff or being a penny-pincher. Sure, I may always pick up a penny off the ground if it happens to catch my eye because I can still hear my Grandmother, Mimi, saying “A penny saved is a penny earned” but that doesn’t mean I’m constantly scouring the parking lot for loose change. Like everything, frugality is a way of life that extends far beyond that of just physical money.

Frugality and leading a frugal lifestyle can be found in every aspect of your life from diet, exercise, work, family, future, time management, and even your hobbies. Behavioral studies show that people who are Frugal have the tendency to acquire economic goods or services in a patient manner in order to achieve a long term goal. While I wholeheartedly agree this is true, we love to save money for that nice new shiny trinket we’ve wanted since we were 7 years old, be it a laptop, car, house, massage, cruise vacation, or whatever your amazing mind can dream up, I believe that frugality is a mindset that transcends mere economic and spending tendencies.

We can extend our frugal tendencies into our diets, for example. Being frugal is what defines us. We can forego the McDonald’s $5 Big Mac and settle with two $1 McChickens instead. But why even stop there? Why not skip the drive-through entirely and benefit from a fast?

 We have the ability to wait a week or a month, maybe even years and go without a T.V. in order to buy the biggest and best. But we don’t stop there, no, we research our big purchase, we wait… Until just the right time and we pounce. We chase what we want with such fervor that nothing can get in our way. If I were an animal, I’d be a Cheetah, waiting, watching, enjoying the sun, then at just the exact right moment a chance to get nice big juicy antelope would present itself.

We feast.

We love getting the biggest bang for our buck. We are disciplined. Frugal folks and families like us don’t follow the crowd. We don’t mind hanging on to that old suit we had when we were fat or stopping to look at the dining room chair on the side of the road, so what if it has a tear in the fabric? I don’t care that someone shot me a funny look or grimaced.

It’s the end of the month and it’s your uncle’s birthday at the Ritzy Restaurant where you can only choose between Filet Mignon and Pan Seared-Salmon none of the main courses are under $25. It’s ok, I’ll settle for the house salad, soup, or split a plate with my brother, we’ve got bigger plans in the works.

We are contemplating and calculating but not devious or mischievous, that would not make us frugal. We do not need to lie to get a better deal. We will happily tip the waiter more because he gave us outstanding service. We don’t complain or argue because this would be a senseless waste of energy.

Whether or not we believe in a higher power, one entity or many, we find happiness in our way of life and we feel more virtuous for it.

Frugal philosophy extends into our work life. We make great managers and leaders. We are patient and forward-looking. We help cut costs and save the company money, but we aren’t brutal or cold. For us, just like any corporation, maximizing shareholder wealth is important. We are the shareholder’s in the happiness of our lives and the lives of those around us.

We are frugal and we are happy. We are free. We care about money and it is important, yes, but it is not main focus of every second of our lives. Because hey, we are Frugal, and we’ve already researched this and know that spending too much time on any one thing will ultimately lead us to failure.

For us, frugality comes naturally, even though we sometimes have to work at it. Check out [url=http://thepathtofrugality.blogspot.com.es/] The Path to Frugality [/url] if you are interested in more ways on making the lifestyle change to that of a more frugal one.

What do you think? I want to hear your comments about what being frugal means to you.