Howdy Beehaw, I’ve been doing a lot of reflecting lately and wanted to share some thoughts. I’ve been having these strange little epiphanies that many things today just don’t seem to fit right. Like at least in the US, everyone is working so hard just to get to this fictitious level of “success” that finally means “you’ve made it,” i.e. finally making enough income to have a decent work/life balance. But it from what I see, often people need to take out a large school loan to do that, pay it off seemingly forever, and there never seems to be a real point of “made it.”
I took a vacation to much more relaxed, beachside spot and saw how the locals were living. Basically off the grid, get fruit at the little market, fix things or trade things. Everyone seem to have this collectivism that felt really connected. No one was money rich, but everyone had this peace about them that almost felt fake to me at first. And then I went down this whole rabbit hole of “why do I need money anyway?”
I know there are certain things life that just costs money, but I’m coming to realize that I don’t think I need as much as I previously anticipated. The people that are “living” to me aren’t just enduring and saving for most of their life so they can sort of relax during retirement, they’re doing real things with people that make them happy.
On a somewhat similar note, I wanted a hobby/activity that did not involve screens and I could continually learn. I ended up picking up hand tool woodworking and feel pretty nice to simplify a bit and get a little creative. I listened to a few podcasts that discussed the industrial era transition and the focus to “more efficient and lower costs,” which took some of the feel away from many things.
The more I think about it, the more I think that industrial shift was not entirely beneficial. The hand tool working podcast said they’re “finding the ‘new’ old ways of living.” And that there is this natural desire for human connection. Restaurants have fake wood marks in the paneling to feel more authentic. Before machined things, there was more intention that went into goods.
Anyway, in my sea of thoughts about enhancing human connection and intention, I thought about Beehaw. After the whole Reddit-geddon searching for an online community, I noticed that the communities here are respectful, open, and actually making human connections. It felt like a breath of fresh air. And I just want to say that I appreciate y’all.
There is a really cool motivational speaker that talked about how people have the idea that “success will lead to happiness,” but it’s actually the opposite, “happiness fuels success.” That doesn’t necessarily mean more money, but he said people that can find happiness around them instead of waiting for it are more fufilled. What I took away is that it’s good practice to dig deep and think about the good things in our lives instead of waiting for X to happen to be happy. It’s difficult to explain, but I think he means not to put the control of our fulfillment with an external factor (job, money, etc). I think where people get sucked in is a little success gives you that high for a while, until they need to find another success, and keep needing to fuel that happiness machine.