You Don't Need to "Have it All"

The previous generation was obsessed with the idea that everyone of them, "Had to have it all," or at least, as much as possible -- which creates a problem when there is barely enough to go around.

People inevitably, spend much of their time fighting everybody else -- "for it all," without first thinking, "Is that what I really need?"  A major part of industry, was simply creating an insatiable need -- for everything, even and especially if one never had it before -- and really didn't know if they'd use and enjoy it when they got it -- but were convinced that they "had to" have it.

Among some of the things people were convinced they needed, was the biggest house, or the fanciest car, the highest status (job), trips to as many parts of the world as possible -- to live as though money were no object, or if it was, one had already "lost," and wasn't in the game with all the worthiest citizens of that society -- still striving for evermore.

Even at "retirement," it was not sufficient to bow out gracefully, but to have the "perfect" retirement (plan)  -- in the perfect retirement place, etc. -- "having it all," and leaving plenty for all their relatives and friends.  Obviously, that was not a reasonable goal for many, or most -- as it has always been, but a relatively well-documented few written about because they could afford to be written about, just as they could afford to be painted, and lavishly "entertained."

So the life of leisure and abundance, even came to be symbolized largely by one's insatiable appetite for entertainment -- more than the satisfaction of basic needs, which affluent societies now took for granted.  That became the new "poverty level" -- of just having all one really needed to live life at its most basic level.  That's how far we have "progressed" -- or many think so.

Life then becomes very difficult -- in the retirement paradises -- where the rich congregate to live the good life, particularly for those not so advantaged, and fall further behind the world's most privileged and wealthy, they live among.  In addition to the island paradises, they have also become most of the modern popular metropolises -- where the most ambitious and talented are still drawn to, in their quest to see if they can "get it all," before retiring from those "games."

Some feel they can never retire from those games -- but only find those they might be more competitive at -- golf, shuffle board, bridge, etc.  The easy one is the stock market.  And season tickets to the opera or sports team.  But now those things can be engaged in by anybody with a computer and Internet connection -- that makes living anywhere, no longer out of touch and in the boondocks -- with next day delivery for anything they order.

That is especially true, of almost anywhere in the USA -- and not that they have to be in New York, London, Paris anymore -- to avail themselves of the latest products and ideas (culture).  Most of that can be experienced in the comfort of one's living room anywhere.  That is the world we now live in.  So is it necessary to live in any particular part of the world -- to actually be living there, or can one live there, just by choosing to immerse oneself in that culture?  And if one wants the tan, nobody can tell the difference from whether it was earned from a hard day lying in the sun, or 5 minutes in a tanning booth.

All these things are not prohibitively expensive either.  They can be part of a "total package," that includes all the amenities of a health resort -- but at the end of the day, one returns to their own living room -- wherever that is.  That being the case, it makes sense to find the most affordable location that serves their needs -- for what they actually do, and need, and skip the luxury premium of doing it with the "celebrities," and others one thinks, "have it all."

Realizing this, is one's nirvana and paradise -- finding oneself, where they already are.

The Golden Age

As recently as only one hundred years ago, it was considered quite an achievement if one reached the age of 65 -- and those who did, felt that they could "go" at any time.  

And so twenty years later, when the Social Security program was founded, it was still thought that it was financially sound to think that most would not live beyond a few years to collect their annuities, and those dying years would be spent in freedom from poverty and greatly diminished capacities to provide for themselves.

It was never suspected from such humble beginnings, that it could actually become the beginning of life for many people -- if one could reach that age, with minimal damage to their essential life force -- as we are only beginning to witness now, as the transformation of life to an unprecedented new level of fulfillment and actualization that was only imagined possible for a rare few in their time.  that of course, would have been the kings and privileged throughout history -- and never the prospect for the average person -- whose life was expected to be "short, brutish and nasty."  

And so the conditioning of the past, was largely that -- of the struggle for supremacy to be that One -- even if it meant vanquishing all the others to get there.  Never in their dreams, would it have been thought possible, that the life of kings, could be the life of the average person, only a hundred years later.  But that is the way history and progress played out -- so that even the least in society, also has access to the abundance and productivity of the world -- even if they have to shop at the thrift stores and yard sales for the excess accumulation everybody else has.

First there is the "more," and next, there is the "better," and ultimately, there is the "best," that it takes a self-designated few to recognize -- even if they have to create it themselves, because it never existed before, but they knew, that is what the world really needed -- even if most could not even imagine that possibility.  That is how the great inventions and innovations come into being -- while most are convinced that such a notion, is impossible, and even the thought of it should be illegal, or at least suppressed.  

For that new idea and way of thinking and living, would so change life, that most conditioned in the present status quo would be so lost in the new world (age), that they would have to unlearn everything they had ever learned in life -- as though that could not be a lifelong, continuing process -- instead of the "one and done" they expected to last their lifetime -- and forevermore, as they thought had been the norm throughout history -- as people thought a hundred years ago, and that they could not change, and embrace an entirely new way of living.

But increasingly, that is the world those who are living now, have to adapt to -- and their success is dependent on.  It is a world that requires them to first take in the new information as the "new" -- and not as the same old information, simply called the "new," and to be treated as though it were the old.  In that way, they will fail to gain any advantage of the truly new, but are limited only to the familiarity of the old -- which probably didn't work as well, and may have be the self-perpetuating problems of the past -- like light bulbs that continually have to be replaced, that never produced high quality light in the first place.  But that was what people were used to -- and thought the ideal, natural, and God-given.

Thus the old world (school) conditioning, was to persist doggedly at only one thing, doing it the one way -- so that the only outcome could be more (of the same), and not better (different).  It was even widely-thought, that simply "more" was "better" -- and not that better, was in fact, vastly different -- and even transformative -- and might change life, and the world, completely, as has been the case in these last twenty years.

It's hard to even imagine the world of twenty years ago -- anymore.  That was the world of books, newspapers, land lines, and other wired equipment.  People became untethered -- and free to roam about -- without penalties and incurring additional charges.  Individuals could now be an entire industry, and enterprise.  Everything one thought, could be recorded for posterity -- or for one's own convenience.  Ultimately, one was, the person they could imagine themselves to be -- and manifest, as proof of the soundness of that way (brand) of living.  That is reality -- and the actualization of their being.  That is who they are.

That is the Golden Age of our times.