beastslayer:
Actually, the joke does apply to me, and a lot of others, too. I've lived in San Diego for the past 38 years and have done so largely for economic reasons. My wife and I have been cussing So Cal for the past decade, she because there are so few places to ride horses and me because there are darn few places to hunt within a reasonable distance and when I do go hunting, I have to drive thru LA and that puts too much strain on my blood pressure pills. I hate that drive and I hate the whole bumper-to-bumper, life in the fast lane, yuppie "Hey look at all the money I have and am spending lavishly to impress you" BS that I've been surrounded by for some time now. I just hate it and couldn't take it anymore so my wife and I said to hell with it all about 4 weeks ago.
We retired early, me at 56 and my wife at 45. We could have hung on several more years and retired with a lot more income, but we finally came to understand the wisdom of the island man in your joke. If you're in paradise, with all the hunting and fishing and open space a person could ever want, what value would more money be? You already have everything and why give up your time to enjoy life for more money? We got tired of chasing the almighty dollar and we have enough to live the life that we probably should have lived from the start.
I often wonder if a lot of us have given up too much in order to have more and more and bigger and bigger. I really think my life would have been richer and fuller if we had instead lived in a small town where we could hunt and fish and ride horses and raise kids to respect nature and never, ever sit in bumper to bumper traffic and come home at night and not lock the doors and not set the alarms and not worry about who might lurking outside in the dark.
No, beastslayer, you hit it right on the head. That guy on the island in your joke is a hell of a lot smarter than I. But, at age 56, I finally see what he has seen all along.
Better late than never.
Aloha.
Actually, the joke does apply to me, and a lot of others, too. I've lived in San Diego for the past 38 years and have done so largely for economic reasons. My wife and I have been cussing So Cal for the past decade, she because there are so few places to ride horses and me because there are darn few places to hunt within a reasonable distance and when I do go hunting, I have to drive thru LA and that puts too much strain on my blood pressure pills. I hate that drive and I hate the whole bumper-to-bumper, life in the fast lane, yuppie "Hey look at all the money I have and am spending lavishly to impress you" BS that I've been surrounded by for some time now. I just hate it and couldn't take it anymore so my wife and I said to hell with it all about 4 weeks ago.
We retired early, me at 56 and my wife at 45. We could have hung on several more years and retired with a lot more income, but we finally came to understand the wisdom of the island man in your joke. If you're in paradise, with all the hunting and fishing and open space a person could ever want, what value would more money be? You already have everything and why give up your time to enjoy life for more money? We got tired of chasing the almighty dollar and we have enough to live the life that we probably should have lived from the start.
I often wonder if a lot of us have given up too much in order to have more and more and bigger and bigger. I really think my life would have been richer and fuller if we had instead lived in a small town where we could hunt and fish and ride horses and raise kids to respect nature and never, ever sit in bumper to bumper traffic and come home at night and not lock the doors and not set the alarms and not worry about who might lurking outside in the dark.
No, beastslayer, you hit it right on the head. That guy on the island in your joke is a hell of a lot smarter than I. But, at age 56, I finally see what he has seen all along.
Better late than never.
Aloha.
