I honestly think that life can’t get much better than right now. I have food when I want it; the security of a home; instant communication technology at my service; easy-to-find entertainment. Do we live like kings? Ladies and gentlemen, we live better than kings. I get the impression that the luxuries of kingdom are tempered by, you know, the strong possibility you’ll be assassinated. It’s not just that, though. Humans are relative beings. We appreciate things on a comparative basis. Like back back back in the day when sugar was a luxury anything sweet was awesome. Imagine what a Kit-Kat bar would taste like to someone from the 17th century. They’d plotz! To us a Kit-Kat is so common it is almost expected. By that measure, things must suck for the completely rich. Easy access to everything means true appreciation for nothing. No, we here in Carrboro don’t have it very hard, but we have it just hard enough that we know we have it pretty fucking good.
This hit me smack in the face when I went to a little fest in Saxapahaw with Mom, Julie, Uncle Alex and FCOR (first cousin once removed) Melissa. It was downright bucolic. Shaded, grassy hill to set up a picnic of amazing food. Barefoot children rolling in the grass. Hoola-hoopers… doing their thing. It almost made me sad to think how good we have it. Like there must be a balance and so others are paying for our good times.
Of course I am sad that not all communities are as utopic as Carrboro; some are quite hellish. Even in Carrboro not all are as well of as I am. Is this the way things must be? Can I make fajitas whenever I want because people are slaving away in wheat fields? Does civilization necessitate “have’s” and “have not’s”?