The other half

 

How the other half lives, often refers to the rich.

Many people think we are rich. After all we have "homes" in Switzerland and the South of France. 

Er ... not so fast.

But by a bizarre twist of fate, we have rented a studio, a kind of mother-in-law apartment, in an area where not only is it the other half, there's a smattering of the 1%ers.

The château in the photo was built for the Duke of Savoy Charles Emmanuel II in 1666, a five minute walk from our studio. We knew it as the home of the Aga Khan. One of our goals was to try and get a smile out of the body guards who are sometimes at the gate as we walk Sherlock by. Sometimes they did, usually if we asked if they were bored.

We hadn't realized that the Aga Khan had died and the château had been sold to Dinara Kulibaeva, whose worth is in the billions. This is her second property. She has another house in the next village.

Wealth like that does not compute.

I feel wealthy. We have enough. More than enough. Our home in the South of France is a two-bedroom flat in the center of a village. The building is at least 400 years old. There's plumbing and electricity. I suspect at one time, cattle and/or chickens were kept where we now live.

In both places we have beautiful scenery, fresh food be it bread coming from a bakery oven or fruits and veggies grown nearby.

We have a car that takes us back and forth. Because it was boring gray and hard to identify in a parking lot we covered it with blue butterfly stickers that make us smile. It's great on gas.

We have neighbors and friends that bring us pleasure.

We love our work as writers.

We have a dog that brings us laughs and cuddles.

If we run into the problems of ordinary living, we work through them. Annoyance yes, but anger no. Our homes are a place or peace and positive reinforcement.

I could list so many things that make us happy without having billions of any currency. We are in the half of the population without great wealth, but I like it here. It's okay to be a peasant, however, it is fun to peek.