Monday Musings
Monday, September 17th, 2007
Increasingly, the aerial view of city outskirts is a predictable pattern of lined houses filling standard sized lots with cul-de-sacs and swimming pools circularly accenting the rigid geometry. I can zoom down and picture the added attractions as everyone tries to keep up with the Joneses – the basketball hoop, the play set (with a canvassed play house if you’re lucky), the pool floats for lazing about, the ATVs for weekend trips to the open country; there always seems to be too little paycheck for too much “Can you buy me that, pleeeease??!!!” It’s like running a race on a treadmill – it’ll wear you out, but it’ll never get you to where you need to go.
As we plug away, trying to make a career, a family and a community, and to arrive ultimately at financial independence, how do we keep perspective? How do we remain healthily critical of our lives so that we can avoid choices that waste resources and segregate communities, and remind ourselves of the things that are truly important in life? How do we gently nudge our neighbors and loved ones when it seems they have lost this perspective and, worse yet, when that misguided sort of life is interfering with our own potential happiness and freedom?
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