Financial Struggles and Simple Pleasures
I remember when my husband and I got married back in 1996 and we lived in an attic apartment in town making 7 bucks an hour. We were able to pay rent (which included the heat and water), get groceries, cover the bills and still had enough money to hit the local dive every weekend for a drink and a good meal. We never sensed the weight of stress while navigating life’s depths amidst drowning pressures.
Fast forward two kids and 25 years later we are definitely in a better position, but it still doesn’t feel comfortable. We aren’t rich, maybe ok depending on the week or whatever the calamity of the moment is, but we are definitely not poor. But it doesn’t feel like we have gotten far past that line.
The Perpetual Daily Grind is a Lousy Investment
Like most Gen-X kids, we started working at a young age and it already feels like we should be retiring by now…but we can’t. Get up, go to work, go home. Run errands, taxi the kid to practice, squeeze dinner in, go to bed. Do it all again in the morning. The weekend, what’s that? Chores and errands. And if we have time and want to go to do something fun outside of a state park, it’ll easily run over a hundred dollars. Then just when you think you’re getting ahead, something happens to pull you back to the start line. Property taxes, car problems, house problems, healthcare costs, it’s never ending and all so expensive.
Digital Dissociation
Maybe this is why so many people put their noses to their phones and scroll reels for hours each evening. The dissociation is a pseudo-remedy. The pressure of everyday life is making introverts out of extroverts. Don’t call me, text. I don’t have enough bandwidth for a real conversation. Yet, when we are forced to attend a social event, it’s the real medicine, the cure. We feel so good afterwards, that we went and had such a good time. We say to each other, “We should do this again, soon.”, but we don’t. Because for that one moment we are floating and relaxing on top of the swell, then in no time the drowning takes hold again with the next workday.
Community vs Disunity
Why does life seem so complicated? It’s a question packed with layers. Politics and corporate policies seem to infiltrate nearly every aspect of our lives, shaping our actions whether we’re aware of it or not. What can we do about it? That’s a conversation for another article. I think though, the first step is connection with each other. Patience with each other. Answering the phone. Accepting that invitation. Not honking your horn at the person in front of you driving too slowly no matter how slow you perceive them to be going.
Lean on Me
When a person is drowning, they are relying on and hoping someone will save them. When we have community, we hold each other up so no one drowns. Community can just be a small circle of friends. Anything outside of reclusion. Whether you need a listening ear or a shoulder to lean on, offering reciprocity ensures that support flows both ways. Sometimes just having someone to talk to helps to dissolve the pressures of the day. None of us enjoy the soldier-ant life most of us are living, but if we can get together on what’s really important, that’s a space where we can begin to talk about what it is that life should be.
What are your thoughts? Leave a comment below!
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