Michelle Moquin’s “A day in the life of…”

http://www.pixelmarx.com/2007/09/03/credit-crunch-on-middle-american-dreams/

I woke up this morning and I began to take an inventory of the ‘things’ that we own and the money still owned on them, and I realized, not really for the first time, that we are working, constantly working to pay for ‘things’.  It muddles up my mind and I realized, not for the first time either, that the things that we do not pay cash for, the things that go on our credit….in reality we really don’t own.  And every month, these little things, some of them very big things, like house mortgages, cars, etc, all take a little bite out of me as we write that check, every month dwindling down the balance and some times not. If we do not write that check or we are late making a payment, a little piece of our credit is taken away. Our things own us.   

I remember before we owned a house and we were just renting, our used cars all paid for, the only real concern we had was a few simple bills. Easy.  Life was easier.  We may have not been able to buy many things, but we owed what we had and if we couldn’t afford it, we just didn’t buy it or do it. Before we invested in things for our future, life was easier. We dropped everything in a months notice, subleased our flat, paid a few bills a head of time, and travelled the world for 4 months without a care in the world. Now to me that was living.  

Who ever said the American dream was owning a house?  Who said accumulating materialistic things meant one was successful? It’s a bunch of crap. Yeah, it is if one can buy it with straight up cash,  then you truly own it. But debt is the American way and almost the only way to establish credit is to owe money on things, and consistently make the ‘payments’, and ‘on time’ let me remind you. We bought into the American dream. Our things own us. This is not living. And quite frankly I am sick of it.  

There are plenty of homeless people in this town and every once in awhile I look at one and I think, ‘This person only needs to be concerned about his or her survival: food, water and shelter.  That’s it…the basic needs. Most likely, they have no bills, no house payment, not credit cards, no job to earn money to pay all of the debt that is owed…just the clothes on their back, some food and water in their gut and a warm place to rest. Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t want to be homeless.  I am sure it is not an easy life, but it is the simplicity that I crave. I want the basics needs too. I have them, and I am grateful for them; I just want them under different circumstances.  I love my things, but I want to own them not pay on them, or I don’t want them anymore. I want to own my things and not have my things own me.  Now that is living…that is freedom….truly the American dream. 

Readers:  How do you feel about your ‘things’?

Gratefully your blog host,

michelle  ?

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