Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways on a motorcycle, chocolate in one hand, martini in the other, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming "WOO HOO what a ride!

... yeah you've read it before, but still a good way to look at life. I added the motorcycle bit ;-)

I don't eat much chocolate, it's too sweet, so I'd need to find something else to have in my hand at the time. The martini can stay however. Which poses an interesting question...

What would you replace the chocolate and martini with?

Now think about this. When you read that first paragraph smiling to yourself remembering it from the last time you read it, I doubt the image of the person in your mind was a yobbo and general nuisance to society. But probably more along the lines of someone, slightly inebriated who seemed to have got the most enjoyment out of life, without destroying the lives of those around them. Am I right? I think I am.

Now if we extrapolate this a little further, yobbos aside, this person you may have pictured in your mind is probably at odds with the image that most fiscally focused people wish to project to the world. People with money, generally (and I do generalise heavily) like to show the rest of society that they have money. How they do this might be subtle but enough to notice, or grandiose. They buy the new car every couple of years, the fancy house, the pool... they seem to have all the luxuries that people with money seem to require just to maintain their status as "People with money". They dress in smart clothes, they dine in fancy restaurants, and before long they may even start to look down their noses at those people who appear NOT to have money. They may start to pour their energy into maintaining their look of wealth, just to ensure they stand apart from those they have deemed not to have any.

This is not keeping up with, but "keeping ahead of the Jones", and is exactly what a burgeoning economy requires of its citizens. For how can one stay ahead of the "Jones" if all we have is the same opportunity to make the same amount of money? To get ahead of the "Jones" in our fiscal society requires us to spend more than the Jones do, and just trying to keep up with them is not sufficient enough for our economists, they require us to spend more and more each time, profits must always increase...never stabilise. Thus the economic spiral goes up, while the social spiral goes down. Those who require to acquire become socially distant from those who don't have the requirement to acquire. The latter are those who came to the realisation that wanton accumulation of wealth cannot continue unabated and so opted out of the whole process.
"What's my point?" I hear you ask...

Well... If one part of society is spending so much energy and time trying to out-do one another just to maintain an appearance of "Wealth", who do you think is ultimately going to represent the image you pictured in your mind when you read the opening paragraph?

The ones who realised early enough in their short lives that life was for LIVING not for ACQUIRING. They're the ones with the chockie bar in one hand and alcoholic beverage in the other. The other part of society is trying so bloody hard not to look like, or be like them that they have forgotten to really LIVE.

Which will you be? I'm acquiring a taste for chocolate.


PS. I'd like to meet the Jones, they're probably a great bunch of people but they've caused a hell of a problem.