“In our circles, people really equate wealth with status,” a mother of one of my son’s lacrosse teammates said, in a tone that suggested she was telling me something new.

“Really, I never noticed,” I said, my response dripping with sarcasm. “And they hide it so well,” the sarcasm dripping faster.

Where we live, my boy’s two main sports - lacrosse and ice hockey — are not solely the province of wealthy white people, but they do disproportionately populate the stands. One thing’s obvious to me: most of them look, dress, talk, probably even smell alike. One thing I don’t get: why do they want that?

The more financially successful these people get, the more they create an insular world. Whether they would admit this or not, it’s clear to me that their greatest ambition for their children is to see them grow up, go to school, get a job, get married, join a country club (oh glory be!), get old, and eventually die without ever building any real relationships outside of the world where everybody looks, dresses, talks, and probably even smells alike.

And I just don’t get it. I’m getting more successful (thanks to hard work and faith in God). I keep trying to expand the colors of my world - not aspire to blandness cradle to grave.

(For the record, I very much like the mother I refer to here. I just will never get that world.)

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Bonus Blogenberg: Yesterday, President Bush publicly thanked the Secretary of the Treasury for working over the weekend. Wow, as a small business owner I cannot imagine somebody working on a weekend. I hope the Treasury Secretary will be able to get some needed rest and recover.

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