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Not all big cities are alike, just as not all small towns are alike. Here is why I find Los Angeles a wonderful place to be in retirement despite its heavy traffic, overcrowding, and high cost of housing. The bottom line is that it offers so much: world class art museums; foreign films; live theatre; a variety of professional sports; beaches, mountains, and deserts all close by; a huge variety of ethnic cuisine; the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Los Angeles Master Chorale live at the acoustically perfect Disney Hall; marvelous public library systems; and the list could go on and on. Even if one partakes of only some of the above, it makes for an enriching and deeply satisfying life. By contrast, what a sad and pathetic statement is "Big cities totally suck". I would never say "Small towns totally suck" because I realize that small towns also have advantages, and that we do not all value and enjoy the same things. Lift up your eyes, Jtur88, there is so much out there.
How many times a year does the average Angelino partake in one of those "advantages"? My sister lives ion the edge of a "great city", and she never leaves her suburb unless she has a dental appointment. I've lived in some great cities, and never even found out if they have a Master Chorale or not. Typical admission prices to the venues you've described are 50-100 bucks. I can eat all month for the price of dinner for two at the kinds of restaurants that do not exist in my town. It would take me about one hour longer to get to Minute Maid Park in Houston, than it would take you to get to Dodger Stadium. Your NFL team is in San Diego. I can walk to both the public and the college library, and get whatever I want through inter-library loan.
OK, "big cities totally suck to live in", but they are always there to be visited if you want to. Most people I know here would rather go to the proctologist than to Houston.
I think the OP is taking about the trade-off. You get to acquire and consume things that might be enjoyable, but you must forfeit many of the finite days of your life in exchange for them.
The question is, is it a good trade (for you) to sacrifice so many of the days of your life in order to acquire things of passing fancy. Instead of buying things, you can buy time, in which to do as you wish.
Indoctrination has been used to persuade you to make the trade in favor of the persuaders, and give up a good part of your precious and valuable life, in exchange for what they profitably dangle in front of your big eyes. Once you take the vows of that lifestyle, there is no going back.
If you are not going to acquire this or that, what is the use of all the extra time. It is this kind of thinking that the atheists and liberals (if not the same person) are creating. I can't be happy because I will die someday. How unfortunate. Satan, the author of it, is having a field day!
By the way, I am NOT saying that ALL who think this way are unhappy.
If you are not going to acquire this or that, what is the use of all the extra time.
Is this a serious question that has been thought through?
Some people actually use their "extra time" to do things like play with and talk to their small children, or read library books, or walk in the woods, or try to go back to that nice dream they just awoke from, or cook raw potatoes instead of zapping a bag of frozen tater tots. I guess you think those are the people who might as well kill themselves.
Is this a serious question that has been thought through?
Some people actually use their "extra time" to do things like play with and talk to their small children, or read library books, or walk in the woods, or try to go back to that nice dream they just awoke from, or cook raw potatoes instead of zapping a bag of frozen tater tots. I guess you think those are the people who might as well kill themselves.
Well, duh! I do that too, but the OP is talking about having many many years free, or that is the way I take. Unless the OP is saying that is bad to aquire things. As long they do not separate you from the Lord, they are fine.
To Jtur88, who hates big cities:
1) Houston is not Los Angeles.
2) Authentic ethnic cuisine doesn't have to be expensive; I live within walking distance of an Indian restaurant (Punjabi) where I eat for $12 including tax and tip.
3) As for your sister who never leaves her suburb except for medical appointments, that is her choice and to me, that is a sad life.
4) It is astounding that you attempt to generalize your personal preferences into statements, such as "Big cities totally suck to live in". You have made a choice which suits you, and I have made a choice which suits me.
Well, duh! I do that too, but the OP is talking about having many many years free, or that is the way I take. Unless the OP is saying that is bad to aquire things. As long they do not separate you from the Lord, they are fine.
Charles
I have, four different times in my life, worked and saved and lived frugally and went on overseas trips of 7 months or more, one of them around the world and two of them I stayed for two years or more. I consider ten dollars a day to be excessively luxurious foreign travel. I have absolutely no regrets about having arranged my life accordingly, and I do not miss a single thing that I did not "buy". Nearly everyone I know swoons with envy when they reflect on what I did compared with what they did with the expenditure of the precious and numbered days of their lives.
If there is a Lord, I doubt that he will admonish me for how I occupied the days He gave me.
"In your final hours, you will not regret what you did in your life, but what you did not do." ---Mark Twain
To Jtur88, who hates big cities:
1) Houston is not Los Angeles.
2) Authentic ethnic cuisine doesn't have to be expensive; I live within walking distance of an Indian restaurant (Punjabi) where I eat for $12 including tax and tip.
3) As for your sister who never leaves her suburb except for medical appointments, that is her choice and to me, that is a sad life.
4) It is astounding that you attempt to generalize your personal preferences into statements, such as "Big cities totally suck to live in". You have made a choice which suits you, and I have made a choice which suits me.
That's Jtur for you. He things he is the Oracle, when really he is not. Wears thin in about a day. After that, will misbehaving children come to mind as an icon for the "J Boy".
I have, four different times in my life, worked and saved and lived frugally and went on overseas trips of 7 months or more, one of them around the world and two of them I stayed for two years or more. I consider ten dollars a day to be excessively luxurious foreign travel. I have absolutely no regrets about having arranged my life accordingly, and I do not miss a single thing that I did not "buy". Nearly everyone I know swoons with envy when they reflect on what I did compared with what they did with the expenditure of the precious and numbered days of their lives.
If there is a Lord, I doubt that he will admonish me for how I occupied the days He gave me.
"In your final hours, you will not regret what you did in your life, but what you did not do." ---Mark Twain
I have nothing negative to say about arranging your life in such a manner, but no matter what you (not you specifically) do or not do with your resourses, there will be some that say you wasted too much and some that say you denied yourself too much. I, for one, aside from my mortgage, use NO credit. I have no debt other than that and some old, lingering Student loan debt.
As far as the Lord, He is concerned only with us serving Him, and assisting others - among other things - is serving Him. All in all, my hat is off to you!
I lived in a poverty-sticken country in Africa for 2 years. I was hoping I would learn to appreciate what I have, how rich I really am, and that simple is better. That attitude didn't last for long unfortunately.
Back in the land of riches a few months and what am I focusing on? Redecorating my house to make it prettier. I've forgotten all about having to take a cold shower, hand wash my laundry, intermittent electricity, food poisoning, mosquitoes, and dead slow internet.
I do remember how much I loved that place and and its people though and I miss it.
I'm betting that you DO appreciate what you have now. Don't feel guilty! Be glad for what you DO have. I, too, have had a similar (although not quite so rough) experience. And every day, here at home, I revel in the abundance we have here in the USA and wish that everyone could have it. You have a house to redecorate? YAY! And the means to do so? Cowabunga! A washing machine? How wonderful! Reliable electricity? Hallelujah! Just because you have them doesn't mean that you DON"T wish everyone else had them. Enjoy them and do what you can to help everyone else get what you have. Like I said, we have a standard of living that most folks in the world can only dream of. Even if we think we are poor, we rarely stop to think about what we really have. If you think you are deprived with no dishwasher, think of how your life would be without electricity. Be grateful. It can change your life.
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Big cities versus small towns
