The American Dream. Making it. Finally having a place to call your own, a slice of that pie. Yet, in this country of abundance and excess, how free can we truly be? Each morning the mass of men enter their metal cages, driving to their "daily grind" where they pass 8, 9, or 10 hours in offices, factories, and fields across this expansive, varied land, lining the pockets of someone they may never see. It would seem that humanity spends two-thirds of its waking hours on the job, and the other third worrying about it.
The conscientious men in suits have reduced individuals to numbers, figures, spreadsheets. "Production units". How many widgets have you constructed today? Did you "meet target"? Are you that dot I see on Figure 3.1.2, producing less than your peers? I hope not, lest you receive that dreaded slip. After all, it is in the interest of the men with MBAs to increase production while maintaining or diminishing the amount of "overhead" like you. After all, they, too, are merely dots, but on Figure 1.0.3. If one of them can only outperform his or her peers, he or she might have the "privilege" to feed from the scraps left on the boardroom floor.
We are taught from a young age that if we study, work hard, go to college, then "do our time" in 9-to-5 jobs, we might be able to retire wealthy. To have true "freedom". How many of us, after thirty or forty years in the workforce, will be lucky enough to "truly" be free come sixty-five? How many of us will even still be fortunate enough to be breathing at sixty-five? How many of us will have saved enough and invested wisely enough to dine on something more pleasant than Fancy Feast? How many of us will still have our good fortune and health? How many of us will still be fit to climb that mountain or travel the world like we've always talked about? Who among us will still have the presence of mind and sharp wit to write that novel we've been meaning to write, yet we "haven't had the time to"?
Take an honest look at your life at this very moment. How many people do you know have truly "made it"? How many people do you know work because they want to, because their jobs fulfill them? Do you know anyone who can quit his or her job right now and feel financially secure and know that he or she won't become homeless or starve to death within a month or two? How many people do you know have the freedom to abandon their jobs at any given time and not feel their whole world crash down around them?
How many people did you come up with? Zero? One? That's what I thought. Television, society, and our collective upbringing have promised us some great reward if we merely work hard and play by the rules. Our experiences, however, show us otherwise. In essence, only a select few of us will ever truly "make it". The vast majority of us will never feel secure enough to quit our jobs outright without some bit of fear and trepidation. If we're lucky, we'll watch as our bank accounts dwindle. Feeling unlucky? Didn't save enough? You'll live in fear of the repo-man's knock and the bill collector's telephone call.
This "dream" that we've all been promised, that we've all shared, seems more like a mirage. It is a flickering, illusive oasis in the barren wastes, always just over the next hill, forever on the horizon. A few will make it, will taste the sweet waters which they so desire, but the rest of us will be left in the wastes, our bones bleached by the unrelenting noonday sun.
What are we to do? What can we do? Live simply!
Unplug that television. Stop "keeping up with the Joneses". Stop purchasing things you don't need. We cannot blame society alone for our ills. We must take responsibility for our lives. We must learn to step away from the stores, the cars, and the cards and learn to embrace life: live a simple, yet meaningful existence.
When was the last time you sat down for dinner and actually enjoyed your meal, marveled at the fusion of flavors held within, savored the subtle interplay of textures, spices, and scents? Never? Thank the fast-food eat-on-the-go always-on-the-move culture for that.
When was the last time you sat outside under the stars with your children, recounting the tales of Orion and Scorpius? How many of us have actually been far enough away from a city to have seen the Milky Way in all its glory? The Northern Lights?
When was the last time you were lucky enough to marvel at a wild animal in his or her natural environment? To catch a glimpse of fur through the trees, a flick of a tail, a chrrr of a raccoon in the night, or a grunt of a bear you got a little too close to? These are the foundations of lifelong memories, the stories we share, the "stuff of life".
We must remove ourselves from the daily monotony centered around work and learn to live simply, sharing our own experiences, and enriching those lives that intersect ours. Only then might we be lucky enough to transcend the bonds of wage slavery and learn to live our own dreams, not the one-size-fits-all cookie-cutter mirage we've been spoon fed from birth.
