Living in a material world.
I have a smartphone, a laptop (2 if you count work), an iPad, an mp3 player, a huge TV, a ridiculous road bike, a sweet car, a comfy queen size bed, about 30 pairs of shoes and a closet full of clothes that I don't wear half of, a complete snowboarding kit, a great gym membership, and the list goes on...
To me, the iPad, while being a really cool gadget, is the epitome of indulgence. Every time I use it in public, the part of me that thinks "Yea, you know this is cool" wars with the part of me that thinks I have much more than I need.
Did you watch any of the tsunami footage? The slow, inexorable flood of water that looked innocuous enough at first, and eventually lifted up cars and then houses to move them down the streets? The people taping the footage had to be thinking "There goes my house. There goes my stuff." I know that's what I was imagining. And now those people have nothing. And here I sit with my $500 iPad while I had a hard time donating even half of that to people who just lost everything.
The Navy tried to teach us to take every promotion, every raise, and put it in the bank as if we never got it. Totally great theory, and at the time I remember thinking that would be easy. As an O-1, I made more than enough money to live happily and save some up, why would I ever need more? Totally failed in practice. I now make nearly 35% more than I did then, and yes, I have childcare to pay for, but my spending on top of that has still increased. I don't like it. I don't want to treat money so cavalierly. I worry that you can't live this charmed life forever, and I want to make sure I'm racking up good karma for when I need it. Or that if I lose all my stuff, it won't matter, because I won't have been so attached to it. I want to reset my priorities. I want to refocus on the fact that I have a healthy, beautiful family, and amazing friends, and put my money into celebrating those things, not consumerism.
Does this count as a reflection?
To me, the iPad, while being a really cool gadget, is the epitome of indulgence. Every time I use it in public, the part of me that thinks "Yea, you know this is cool" wars with the part of me that thinks I have much more than I need.
Did you watch any of the tsunami footage? The slow, inexorable flood of water that looked innocuous enough at first, and eventually lifted up cars and then houses to move them down the streets? The people taping the footage had to be thinking "There goes my house. There goes my stuff." I know that's what I was imagining. And now those people have nothing. And here I sit with my $500 iPad while I had a hard time donating even half of that to people who just lost everything.
The Navy tried to teach us to take every promotion, every raise, and put it in the bank as if we never got it. Totally great theory, and at the time I remember thinking that would be easy. As an O-1, I made more than enough money to live happily and save some up, why would I ever need more? Totally failed in practice. I now make nearly 35% more than I did then, and yes, I have childcare to pay for, but my spending on top of that has still increased. I don't like it. I don't want to treat money so cavalierly. I worry that you can't live this charmed life forever, and I want to make sure I'm racking up good karma for when I need it. Or that if I lose all my stuff, it won't matter, because I won't have been so attached to it. I want to reset my priorities. I want to refocus on the fact that I have a healthy, beautiful family, and amazing friends, and put my money into celebrating those things, not consumerism.
Does this count as a reflection?
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