Wang Lili --

My name is Maria Trombly and I'm a friend of Fons. I was out with a bunch of foreign (and some local) journalists last night, and he mentioned you and your blog and your plight. I'm sorry that you have problems -- but I guess that is a matter of destiny for artists and novelists! If you're not poor and suffering... well...

Being poor, of course, is a matter of the mind, not a matter of money. I have friends who live in Paris, and in the US, in nice houses or apartments, and they always have problems with landlords and losing their jobs and never having enough money to pay bills and they often get mistreated by people who owe them money.

In some cases, this hurts them a lot, and their lives are worse for it.

But, in other cases, it helps them sympathize with others who are in unfortunate situations and help them out.

And I have other friends who are poor immigrants, or farmers, or get government disability payments and can't work, but who feel that they are wealthy. They never have problems with landlords, and money always arrives when they need it. Some even save a lot of money (even though they have very bad jobs) -- and lend it to my other friends who think that they are poor, even when they sometimes have very good jobs, when they are in trouble.

It is very easy to stop thinking of yourself as poor, and start thinking of yourself as rich -- but then you do different things, you take different jobs, you start saving money instead of giving it away, for example, you buy property instead of renting it. You become a different person, and, for artists and writers, this can sometimes be a big problem

But, whether you are rich or poor, you can still be nice or mean. There are rich people who give away billions to charity (like Bill Gates and Warren Buffet, and even in China there are people who donate to charity). And of course most rich people keep money in banks, whether other people can borrow it to buy houses or get educations or start new businesses. And rich people often have businesses, where they create jobs that didn't exist before , so people have more choices about where to work. And rich people spend money -- that means other people can sell them stuff and charge too much for it. :-)

From the standpoint of the economy, the only bad rich person is a rich person who collects money and then keeps it in a mattress, where the money doesn't do any good for anybody else.

But, of course, on a personal level, rich people can be just as unkind as anyone else.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that a rich person can't make someone else poor, and can't make someone else rich. No matter how much money I get, for example, it is all gone at the end of the month. If I get a lot of money, a friend always calls up, or a relative, and they're in trouble and need money. Or someone gets sick, or something breaks and needs repairs. There is never any money to save. This month, I have decided to start changing this, and put some money in a separate bank account, for savings, for the first time in my life. And now I already feel different. I don't know if it's a good thing or a bad thing.

You also have to know a secret -- some people who look rich on the outside may actually be very poor. They have a house, maybe, but they owe money to the bank for the house, and the bank payments are always late and if a tenant doesn't pay on time, they might lose the house. Or they have a nice job, but they spend so much money on trying to look successful that they're always in debt and have to borrow money from people, and are always paying their rent late and making excuses. And some people who look poor and are farmers and wear very cheap clothes and work at very bad jobs, may actually have a lot of money in the bank and are very careful and send their child to a nice college and help them buy a house.

This is why my theory is that being rich or being poor is inside the head, not on the outside.

Anyway, I'm rambling on way too long because I've been drinking.

Fons just said I might like you and that we should meet.

Drop me a line sometime -- I'm at maria@trombly.com.