I live in a great place. A safe place.
I walk around alone, unarmed, without fear. This is true even in the dark, even when the nights are completely fogged in. This is true even in a city where homelessness is rampant, and car break-ins happen on a regular basis, and everyone’s windows and doors are covered with anti-human bars.
For me, there is no need to worry.
My water is clean, or at least as clean as it can be in an increasingly polluted world. I can even afford a secondary water filter.
Our house is warm. We are never cold. We might complain about the cold, but it is just the whining of the rich.
It is just the same for food: we are never hungry. Our food is nourishing and plentiful. We have never truly known hunger or starvation or privation.
We can afford substances that alter our mind in a variety of ways. And we can afford the time to use them.
We can afford the time to loaf and complain and explode over tiny meaningless offenses. Because that is how wonderful our lives have become. We find problems in the mundane and minute.
We can read all day.
We have endless power.
I can feel the presence of the ocean in the air. I can even walk to the ocean and back in a day’s journey. That can be shortened to mere minutes with a car, of which we have a luxurious one.
Every morning, I have a difficult choice to make: which park do I walk the dog to? There are 8 options that immediately come to mind, and I’m certain there are more I’ve yet to discover.
It is a beautiful country we live in.