As I was enjoying a Sunday morning hot tub with Bonnie today, I realized that what I was referring to yesterday was simply, abundance. We live in a society, in a place where there is great abundance of all the things people need: food, drink, shelter, clothing and so on. Yet we still have an obvious and disproportionate way of sharing this abundance. While my family enjoys lots of nutritious food every day, our house stays warm in the winter and we have such lavish benefits that include a swimming pool in summer, a hot tub year-round, membership in an exceptional athletic club (Variety Village) and can afford to subsidize the grand-kids in Cubs and Sparks. So we have a lot and I haven't even mentioned several colour TV sets, CD players and multiple computers. Yet we don't consider ourselves rich.

It appears clear to me that my family lives in a lifestyle of abundance -- did I mention that we have two cars? So how come there are so many families, especially those with young children living in poverty in our country? Is it because those of us who have don't want to share what we have? Or is it because we don't think that those who don't have don't deserve to have?

Perhaps it's because we don't know how to share effectively. We tend to assume that our political leaders will solve this societal problem but so far, they haven't been very successful. there is an entrenched corporate mindset that leads the thinking on this issue and, unfortunately, corporations feel responsible only to their own shareholders and not to the community at large. Yes, I know some organizations have very generous charitable programs but many are focused only on special interest areas that have captured the attention of the senior executive groups.

Frankly, what we need is to get more money in the hands of the poor so that they can spend it. When they have money to spend they become consumers and our economy thrives on consumption. So why aren't we paying people who do necessary grunt work livable wages. Why aren't we providing livable support funding for those unable to work at regular jobs. When private or public money flows into the lowest income recipients in our society we will all benefit because that money flows back into the economy at large.

Only when individuals are earning significant wages in permanent jobs will they have an opportunity to put something by for the future. By giving people the incentive to live well they will naturally aspire to improve themselves and to build better living regimes for themselves. Thus we must raise the minimum wage to $12 or more an hour and provide support levels beyond $12,000 a year for those chronically unemployed or unable to be employed. The payback to our economy and to the well-being of our society will be enormous.

Have you had an epiphany lately? I still have them every once and awhile -- which means not often enough. However, when these moments of revelation do come, they are all the more profound. Yes, I know, some people still think these moments are an inspiration from god, but we know that it is more likely the lucky connection of a few neurotransmitters that reveal insights that were lurking in the brain all along.

So what happened today? I had hung out laundry on my solar dryer (what my mother used to call a clothesline) two days ago but a fog swept in and kept everything damp. Then yesterday we had full sun on a very mild October day. But I didn't get around to taking the dry laundry down because of an emergency trip to Hamilton to pick up cousin Michele who had been stranded because of a leaking gas tank. This morning, before dawn, I started to hear the patter of rain on the skylights and, following a few choice expletives, I rescued two baskets of still damp washing.

Loath to put this lot in the dryer, I hung everything on the racks set up in the laundry room to air dry. While I was doing that, I discovered a whole load of laundry already in the dryer, left over from my lovely wife Bonnie who had put it in while I had taken the grand-kids to Niagara Falls a couple of weeks ago.

Which brings me to my epiphany. It occurs to me that some of us survive, even thrive because we have reserves. In terms of laundry, it is obvious we have lots of extra clothes and we could cope for some time with our surplus. Because many of us have reserves of clothes, of food, of money, even housing, we can manage the ups and downs of life far more easily than those who don't. For those who live from meal to meal, from day to day, there is no opportunity for planning, for supporting others, for building their own reserves.

When we are confronted by situations where we need to decide how we can help others, try to remember that we have reserves and they don't. With reserves we can make choices. They can't.

So when you wonder who our thought-leaders are, who the decision-makers in our society are, try to remember that we are they. Don't count on somebody else to take responsibility for societal problems. We are the ones we've been waiting for.