Sunday, July 3, 2011

I want it and I want it NOW!

Family watching television, c. 1958Image via Wikipedia
I feel that Americans are some of the laziest people on our planet.  I'm no different, we all want to have health in a pill, and we all want wealth without working for it.  We all also believe that we are owed something, but what? In our lives we will find that it really is just a journey the only true destination is death. So when you start each day keep this in mind: the positive, your dreams, and the people who care about you. This should be enough to help you get through the problems that life presents to each of us every day. I know that we all believe that if I could just have this next item on my wish list; I would be happy; this could be a new car, or something in your home. You know as well as I that this material item will soon lose its new appeal and become just another burden, like your last car payment. Our society has taught us to focus on the material so much that we lock ourselves in a prison that is created by our wants not real needs and the debt that our needs and wants incur.

 I sometimes wish that I lived back in what is known as” the old days”, where people worked for what they had, and very rarely borrowed money. They made their own clothes, they grew their own food, and they built their own houses. They also had closer families and friends that helped with these demanding chores.  Nowadays you are lucky if you can just get friends to come over for a nice dinner at your home, because people are so busy in their rushed lives because they have bills to pay.  Look at America as a whole.  Our deficit is out of control, our elected officials can't agree on spending, and each and every one of us are nearly the same with our families’ budget, if we even have made one at all.

It is my wish that we break this cycle of materialism that we now live in, so that children are not made fun of in school because they don't have the right shoes or the right jacket or jeans. If this could happen, then maybe when these children become adults they would not feel the need to have the newest truck; or the latest TV, or the fanciest phone that just came out, and will be obsolete in three months.  I guess this is all just a dream for me, and I dare not mention the people who have warned us of these problems such as the Uni-bomber, but technology does have a price. I believe we are all paying a bit; not just with money, but also with low self-esteem and added stress to friendships, marriages, and to our bodies as well. 

I hope that having read this, there is at least a part of what I'm trying to say you can agree with, and maybe it will help you to change your life a little for the better, in the future.  It will take us a little change each generation and I believe we will be a better nation because of those changes. It can't, nor will it, happen overnight; just as the problems we face did not arrive overnight, but with time and understanding we can be a very self-sufficient society.  My dream is that we can learn to live healthier lifestyles that strain our bodies, relationships, and our planet less.
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