When the Price of Security is Too High

Are You Using the System or is it Using You?

Being human often means growing up in a struggle for survival. Before we had jobs and commerce like we have today, survival consisted of hunting or farming. Maybe somewhere along the way, we have that intense struggle and fear still floating in the specie's subconscious even though for most of us, we probably couldn't compare our lives to any of our cavemen brethren. It's pretty hard though to fully understand that since people in today's culture strive in some sort of uber-survival mode that isn't even necessary anymore.

Part of that comes with idea that we are meant to retire at some age and live out our golden years lying on a beach in Florida. This is seen as the ideal old age, and maybe it is. I don't know. I'm not there yet. Our whole working lives are not based on whether we are contributing to society, feel happy within ourselves, or even if we are doing what we want to do. It's based on the idea that we must make as much money as possible in the shortest amount of time so we can finally retire and stop working. It seems even if we "do it right" we may never get to do what we want because we'll be too old to do it by then!