👍 Great post, Peter! You’ve provided a great reminder to put things into perspective as one goes thru life. The comforts and conveniences we enjoy and take for granted today would have been unimaginable less than 100 years ago. The fact that one has to exercise to maintain physical fitness should be seen as a joy, not a burden. My father was a WWII vet who never exercised for the sake of exercise, but worked a manual labor job so he was always fit. BTW, he never complained once about working with his hands and not getting rich 💵. He did lead a long healthy and happy life, however.
Seems that some people simply have to see the glass as half empty, regardless of the quality of the contents of that glass. Thanks again! Be well.
My wife and I and two boys did well enough on half - HALF - a military paycheck, dedicating every other raise or promotion to investments, and every other to quality of life, over 30 years. We never bought things we couldn't afford to pay cash for, except our Forever House, which we did pay off at age 57 from the mountain of taxable investments we'd built over 30 years of saving and budgeting. Yes, others we knew "lived better" than we did at the time, but my focus was on being the best I could be at my job and let everything else sort itself out - and it did.
Your experience more or less mirrors ours. We’re still in our paid off “forever” house, finally getting around to refinishing the 1969 basement that was outdated when we moved in in 1991. It’s all worked out in good time.
I have to distance myself occasionally from some people who seem to be unable to find any happiness in anything. Even if it’s family. I think they get addicted to negativity and misery.
People alive in the West today are among the top one percent of all humanity that has ever existed, but as the article points out, a lot of folks are pissed off about that. Absent a Great Depression, world war (not that there is no effort to start one of those), or similar level event, people have convinced themselves that first-world problems are equivalent to existential crises. Except they're not. They are issues elevated well beyond their level of importance and concern.
"Workers of the world, unite! All you have to lose are your chains." - Marx
"It is only by the force of the state that the liberty of its members can be secured." - Rousseau
If miserable liberals ever get the "freedom" that Leftists are selling, grinding a desk job and driving to Costco with your wife and kids on the weekends will be remembered as Paradise Lost.
👍 Great post, Peter! You’ve provided a great reminder to put things into perspective as one goes thru life. The comforts and conveniences we enjoy and take for granted today would have been unimaginable less than 100 years ago. The fact that one has to exercise to maintain physical fitness should be seen as a joy, not a burden. My father was a WWII vet who never exercised for the sake of exercise, but worked a manual labor job so he was always fit. BTW, he never complained once about working with his hands and not getting rich 💵. He did lead a long healthy and happy life, however.
Seems that some people simply have to see the glass as half empty, regardless of the quality of the contents of that glass. Thanks again! Be well.
Greatly enjoyed this and very much agree!
My wife and I and two boys did well enough on half - HALF - a military paycheck, dedicating every other raise or promotion to investments, and every other to quality of life, over 30 years. We never bought things we couldn't afford to pay cash for, except our Forever House, which we did pay off at age 57 from the mountain of taxable investments we'd built over 30 years of saving and budgeting. Yes, others we knew "lived better" than we did at the time, but my focus was on being the best I could be at my job and let everything else sort itself out - and it did.
Your experience more or less mirrors ours. We’re still in our paid off “forever” house, finally getting around to refinishing the 1969 basement that was outdated when we moved in in 1991. It’s all worked out in good time.
I came across this clip years ago and still love it. People are such putzes.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=PdFB7q89_3U&pp=ygUYbG91aXMgY2sgbGlmZSBpcyBhbWF6aW5n
I have to distance myself occasionally from some people who seem to be unable to find any happiness in anything. Even if it’s family. I think they get addicted to negativity and misery.
People alive in the West today are among the top one percent of all humanity that has ever existed, but as the article points out, a lot of folks are pissed off about that. Absent a Great Depression, world war (not that there is no effort to start one of those), or similar level event, people have convinced themselves that first-world problems are equivalent to existential crises. Except they're not. They are issues elevated well beyond their level of importance and concern.
"Workers of the world, unite! All you have to lose are your chains." - Marx
"It is only by the force of the state that the liberty of its members can be secured." - Rousseau
If miserable liberals ever get the "freedom" that Leftists are selling, grinding a desk job and driving to Costco with your wife and kids on the weekends will be remembered as Paradise Lost.
"The mind is its own place, and in itself
Can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven."
- John Milton