A LESSON IN PERSPECTIVE: What makes you so different from Jeff Bezos? Don't we all put our pants on one leg at a time?

This is Jeff Bezos, owner of Amazon and a good many other things, and his ex-wife, Mackenzie Scott. We are just like them in a lot of ways... we breath, eat, sleep, bleed, etc.

But here's a test: If you are walking down the street and see a dollar bill on the sidewalk, what would that look like if you were Jeff Bezos? You see a dollar but he sees $850,000. He is so rich, he has $850,000 (or more) for every dollar you, average person, have. Imagine that!

Jeff Bezos is the richest man in the world at $100 billion-plus. His ex-wife is in the picture because she is in the top 25 richest, worth a modest $36 billion. I'd call that a win-win divorce. So what's the secret everyone should know... if you want to be rich, marry Jeff Bezos... or his ex-wife.

Fact is, most of the very rich have made it themselves, thanks to our tech explosion and new ideas that spring from that. Hats off to the self-made. 

But this isn't about who is richest, it is about personal perspective... our view of life verses his or hers. 

• One mile to us is like infinity to space.
• One good meal a day is like everything to someone who is starving of hunger or dying of thirst.
• One roof over our head is like all the streets and places of the homeless.
• One ocean cruise to us is like all of those refugees trying to find safer grounds for their families and risk their lives at sea and elsewhere in the most unsafe ways for freedom.

It is not only that we are so alike as human beings but that we are so different when it comes to living within our body or viewing the world from our eyes. The world looks and feels different if you are poor or unhealthy or of a different race or place in the world. Try to understand that. Those without do not choose that path. Birthrights are not evenly spaced.

All of which brings us to a twisted Golden Rule: He/she who has the gold, rules. And with means comes opportunity that those less off do not have. 

The richest have experienced great financial gains in the last decade. The top 5 percent have grown by $4.8 million on average while the net worth of families in the lower tiers of wealth have lost ground, decreasing by about 20 percent from 2007 to 2016.

The Stock Market gains have benefitted the wealthy almost unilaterally as 84 percent of stocks are owned by the top 10 percent of the wealthy.

How can we be so alike and so different?

While it is so true that things like cancer, heart attacks, etc. and all of life's maladies don't care how much money or power one has. It's cancer for all. Money cannot buy happiness and health but it does make whatever life led, so much easier to manage with so many more options. The only thing poverty buys is more poverty. And that's how fast we are dividing.

Having money in abundance does come with options, and responsibilities, those less fortunate do not have.  To live in this world, we all have to be human beings and as such, owe each other common decency. If it were not for those who clean up after us, those who don't would have a real mess on their hands. Those who are ill need those who offer care. Those who own businesses need those who work, Those who seek education need teachers, and so on. 

Rich or poor, we have an interdependence to one another. If one group fails, we all fail, even if we don't realize that in the moment. Be mindful, the earlier America that set the stage was built largely on the backs of slaves. 

Biblically stated, the real Golden Rule says "That which you do to the least of our brothers, that, you do for me." Or simply, treat others as you would like to be treated...  fairly, with respect, with dignity, with empathy for problems that exist for them but not even close for you. 

While money tends to divide, humanity does not.

With all the divisiveness that is, 'today normal,' we really must do better, because THIS, is ridiculous.

Step 1: VOTE

Step2: STAND UP FOR THOSE WHO CANNOT STAND UP FOR THEMSELVES.

Step 3: LISTEN WITHOUT MALICE AND TRY TO SEE ANOTHER PERSPECTIVE.

Step 4: DON'T FORGET TO VOTE.

The world has, and always will have, bad actors. I guess we can blame Adam and Eve for that. But don't presume they are everyone that has a different path than you.