A fun exercise would be to imagine what you would do if you lived in a socialist country (the good ones). Your children’s education is paid for, throughout college. Health insurance is guaranteed. Not a penny out of pocket. Housing is cheap and your family is able to live close by and support you. Childcare is taken care of. Children are mostly screen free and able to roam, unguarded, and do what children naturally do. You have absolutely no socio-economic worries at all, though it gets pretty cold and pretty dark pretty often. How then, in this imaginative world, do you live? Do you have the same job? Do you continue doing what you do or do you quit on the spot, laughing all the way to your car, or to public transportation?
How much of our lives are shaped by external factors that silently and cumulatively tilt the scales of our decision making. How many to-do lists that you fret over are filled with tasks birthed from the notion that these things must be accomplished. These activities for the children not to be bored or fall behind. These bills to be paid; the surprise presentation of them at your doorstep irrelevant to the creditor you now owe. How many conversations would you have about how your life worth is connected to the interest rate on the debt on your home, which you often do not love in the first place. What forced social disconnection do you endure in order to have your children in a school district who will do what school districts are supposed to do the things you imagine school districts doing in your school district hypothetical fed by someone else? In what ways do you try and hammer in “date nights” with the person you promised your entire life to, when your mind runs with the things that need to be done before the close of business? Is spirituality or religion now an additive to the recipe, rather than the base it was for centuries, and does that make things better or worse? And for whom?
Do you ever step back and thing about who is truly in charge of your life? Truly in charge. Do you ever wonder whether or not you’re part of a big game, and you’re unaware that you’re a contestant? Unclear as to when the game began, and what classifies as completing the game (absent death). What does winning mean? What does losing mean? Do you ever think about whether podcasts are actually teaching you something, or simply distracting you from teaching yourself something? How do you reckon how far out you’re able to swim before you get so far that you don’t have the strength to turn back, and instead float away; unaware of the knowledge that was right in front of you in the first place.
Open your eyes.