La Dolve Vita

I wonder so much if we’re going to change as a society when we realize that all the things that make us think we’ve got a “good life” are really screwing us up. Like “I’d be living the good life if I could afford a Birkin bag and a Mercedes.” Okay, you spent so much time working to afford that bag that you didn’t have any time to spend with your friends and family. And driving around in that Mercedes is costing you a fortune in gas and insurance (more work) and putting pollutants in the air and heat in the environment and . . . is this really what good is?

And even something like “Eat Pray Love” which takes really simple concepts and turns them into a consumerist commodity. You do not have to spend thousands of dollars to go on a dream vacation to discover good food, spirituality and human connection. You could do all that by going to your community garden – eat the tomato you grew yourself, pray that there’s enough rain and learn to do something really, really nuts like learning to love your neighbor. Okay, your neighbor is probably not Javier Bardem. So maybe you just like your neighbor. What a concept.

I guess what I’m saying is that any time somebody is trying to sell you something that will make you happy, stop. Think. They are trying to sell you something. It’s coming from outside of you. It’s a trick! You and I both know that happiness doesn’t come from outside. How do we keep forgetting? I’m not going Luddite, anti-consumerist, long-haired, hippie freak. Some of that shit you can buy is cool as hell. Cool is fun. Fun is not happy. We shouldn’t tie ourselves in knots for fun. We shouldn’t work ourselves to death trying to buy happy. You can’t buy the good life. You can only live the good life.