The Samurai Song (Robert Pinsky) captures the Samurai's outlook on life. It describes an attitude of simple living and high thinking, of living for the spirit and finding satisfaction within his own self. The Samurai exemplifies a Spartan life, a life of doing without and yet maintaining his high spirits.
Samurai Song
(By Robert Pinksy)
When I had no roof I made
Audacity my roof. When I had
No supper my eyes dined.
When I had no eyes I listened.
When I had no ears I thought.
When I had no thought I waited.
When I had no father I made
Care my father. When I had
No mother I embraced order.
When I had no friend I made
Quiet my friend. When I had no
Enemy I opposed my body.
When I had no temple I made
My voice my temple. I have
No priest, my tongue is my choir.
When I have no means fortune
Is my means. When I have
Nothing, death will be my fortune.
Need is my tactic, detachment
Is my strategy. When I had
No lover I courted sleep.
Fast forward to year 2007 and the Real Estate boom. A key player in the boom has been the Lending Agent, whose mission was to lend more and more with less and less justification, leading to the Real Estate (or Unreal Estate?) mania. In mortgage lending, there are three C's which are essential to qualifying a borrower, namely Character, Capacity and Collateral. Character is revealed by the credit score. Capacity (or income) is checked by Income statements (W2's) and Collateral by appraisal of the property. While fearlessly approving loans and collecting commissions, the lending agent showed the same zeal and resilience in renouncing the three C's that the Samurai exhibited in renouncing physical comforts and relationships.
I could not resist penning the following (amateurishly written) poem, with apologies to Mr. Pinsky.
The Lending Agent Song
When borrowers had poor credit,
I went with blind faith
As their credit score.
When they lacked capacity,
I used Teaser rates
To qualify for more.
When the collateral was low,
I banked
On mindless and continuing appreciation.
Even as prices went higher,
Borrowers kept ringing my phones
And I duly obliged,
With 40 year loans.
Skyward went home prices
Defying gravity.
I accepted No asset, no income-check
Mortgages, with perfect equanimity.
When nothing else worked
To Alt A and Sub Prime
I condescended.
(Was that such a crime?)
Lending was my mission,
I loved the commission.
But housing which was on fire,
Is stuck in a quagmire
Everybody is talking gloom,
Recession and economic doom.
But where were the Regulators
When housing was in a boom?
Now housing is affected by blight
Gloomy foreclosures left and right.
Children, pets and the spouses,
Everyday being evicted from houses.
But do you think I care?
No, I have nothing to fear.
I've made my millions,
And now am set to retire.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Rohit_Khera
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