Early one morning, I decided to see if a good oldie movie might inspire a good day’s start. The movie depicted a man who returns from war to his family home.

His parents clearly are in conflict. Their marriage is in jeopardy. The man’s father owns a lucrative business and expects the son to work for him. Old dynamics between father and son are reignited.

The son soon decides to go off on his own. Fast forward, he gets married and sets upon a career that demands more of his time. His own marriage begins to deteriorate. While away from home on a work assignment, he meets a woman whose demeanor equals her radiant physical beauty. His heart, once closed by the world of extreme work demands and a dying marriage, is opened.

He must look within to decide upon his future. His choices are a partnership replete with financial wealth along with a bitter wife or the unknown. Drama unfolds and, at last, he frees himself from the former to embrace the latter which, of course, includes the lovely aforementioned woman. Much to the surprise of both his employer and his wife does he essentially state strong feelings for the richness of love that trumps his otherwise seemingly enviable life.

I’m a sports fan. My favorite sport has been baseball. My newspaper’s sports section recently identified contracts for many signings. Unlike yesteryear where players stayed loyally with one team until retirement, players move from team to team. The riches are available and players make out far beyond what most might obtain in another non-athletic career.

There are hundreds of billionaires on our planet. Some are well-known and others remain anonymous. When I was a youngster millionaires were held in high esteem. Today, the number of millionaires is staggering. I recently read a report about the World Bank whose primary function is to identify countries in need of financial help where poverty and hardship are the norm. A branch of the World Bank has surreptitiously provided major league lucrative contracts to corporations in embattled, impoverished countries to line the pockets of the already-wealthy business owners. Very little is provided for the obvious necessities of the poor. The trickle-down theory manifests widely.

We are a relatively small inhabited planet circling a star, our sun, in an immense galaxy in an unimaginative infinite universe. The value of equality to include the basics we often take for granted, food, shelter and clothing, are missing on a grand scale. This includes our wealthy USA. People are hungry; they’re starving. They are unhealthy and without supports, save for selected few areas of our globe.

We have the know-how, the richness of skilled people throughout the planet to provide supports and basic essentials for the world’s marginalized population. Obstacles emanating from some, not all, the extreme wealthy and their vast holdings prevent humanitarian outpouring of assistance to manifest. That is depression truly on a great scale.

Marshall Greenstein, a Cassadaga resident, holds a master’s degree in marriage and family counseling and is a licensed marriage and family counselor and a licensed mental health counselor in New York state. He has regular office hours at Hutton and Greenstein Counseling Services, 501 E. Third St., Suite 2B, Jamestown, 484-7756. Send comments to editorial@observertoday.com