Sunday Thought: Do you find stuff repulsive or irresistible these days?

As we started our mini-retirement (a.k.a hiatus, sabbatical…) back in 2006 I was convinced that the world was going to hell in a hand basket. Everything seemed so overly excessive: the receptionist speculating in real estate, the soccer-mom buying $5,000 hand bags, newly graduates driving sports cars et cetera.

I think my innovative brain (see Roger’s Bell Curve) just got repulsed by monkey see, monkey do. “Money for nothing and chicks for free”. So I guess I subconsciously turned off the hedonistic urges that’s been my trademark since the mid-90s and let the disgust take over. No more stuff, no more spending.

We decluttered, destressed and detoxed from life as we knew it: corporate life, work hard play hard, climbing the ladder, spending on success objects and living the collective dream. We killed the outflow of cash and curtailed our retail therapy in favor of a more thoughtful living. More Henry David Thoreau and less Paris Hilton.

It was tough to resist the majority and live on the edge of society - it took another 2 years before armageddon happened. If you don’t own your own place in the US of America the Beautiful you are *nothing*. A loser, a poor bastard with no ambition, life goals or opportunities. And even worse; you are insulting the majority, the 70% that do own. How could they ever be wrong? :p

We judge our neighbors on a linear scale. How far have they climbed? Do they own their place, are they VPs yet, do they have a kid and drive two cars? Wow, the Madoff’s most be doing really well. I know, it’s a cheap shot but it’s damn true. Your most successful neighbor might just be the next jailbird.

Life is cyclical while we try to make it linear. Life doesn’t move in a straight line, there are ups and downs. That’s why it’s called the circle of life. It’s okay to expand and contract stuff, activities, spending et cetera. Life comes in several cycles and waves and it’s never to late to hop on board for a ride. And it’s never too late to hop off.

Our transition to 21st century schizoid man (c’mon you need to know your music history to follow my posts) has worked out well. It’s like we were driving this gas-guzzling SUV down I-5 and then turned off, switched to a small fuel-efficient sports car and took off on small beautiful sports-car roads. We left the secure road to nowhere and took the road less travelled.

What a wild journey it has been since our hiatus three years ago when we decided we needed change (and so did the world it seems). It’s been insanely fulfilling on so many levels, so real, so fun. Imagine waking up everyday with the eagerness off a kid wanting to explore the new world. It’s lifestyle design on crack without the need for crack.

Recessions are about reinvention, about rethinking, rebooting the mind. It’s life’s way of saying: you guys are out of control. Earth calling: we want sanity and reason back. And that Ferrari you just bought on credit with money that was never yours.

Today we can afford to let the hedonistic part of our brain come out and play as long as we keep the balance between desire and real needs. A new LED Cinema Display, a new bed frame and a trip to Las Ventanas would be cool… As my buddy Joe always say: Life is beautiful!