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"If they are driving a Navigator living in a 6 bedroom house, but giving to charities they have semi-backward morals. They're halfway there. Sure, they're donating, but they obviously don't care for the surroundings and such."
LOL, so says the 18-year-old from Scarsdale who just last week said:
"Our neighbors drove an hour and a half - 2 hours just to give us gifts while a family member was in the hospital."
and, while discussing christmas decorating:
"We have a professional do the trees because we don't want it to look stupid."
Sounds like your neighbors know how to live in the suburbs and still have morals... but frankly, you're the one who sounds shallow. Worrying that Christmas trees need to be done professionally or they will look stupid? Dude, talk about being trivial, materialistic, and self absorbed.
"If they are driving a Navigator living in a 6 bedroom house, but giving to charities they have semi-backward morals. They're halfway there. Sure, they're donating, but they obviously don't care for the surroundings and such."
LOL, so says the 18-year-old from Scarsdale who just last week said:
"Our neighbors drove an hour and a half - 2 hours just to give us gifts while a family member was in the hospital."
and, while discussing christmas decorating:
"We have a professional do the trees because we don't want it to look stupid."
Sounds like your neighbors know how to live in the suburbs and still have morals... but frankly, you're the one who sounds shallow. Worrying that Christmas trees need to be done professionally or they will look stupid? Dude, talk about being trivial, materialistic, and self absorbed.
Hey, I have no say in how my parents spend money, though I won't argue with you on the tree issue. But that's for Christmas, there's no such thing as too much during this time of year.
Trust me, I'd be content with a studio apartment, a small TV with ESPN on, and a subway station within a 5 minute walk from my place.
"Could someone please explain to me the morality or immorality of an SUV, a big house, and/or a big yard? And while they're at it, could they explain why everyone who lives in the city seems to think that everyone who lives in the suburbs drives an SUV, lives in a huge house with a huge yard? "
What a great question--definitely worth a rep point.
I don't drive an SUV, I drive a Prius. But we have several people in my church who drove their SUVs down to Lousiana after Hurricane Katrina to take emergency generators and food. I also know other perople in my neighborhood who are on the hospital call list. They are called upon to get people to hospitals during snow emergencies.
I do own a 4,000 sf home. The first floor houses a business, the basement serves as storage, and we use the top floor as a residence. Therefore, I don;t need to drive to work, or to a storage unit (which I would need if I rented office space in the city). I'm near my clients, so they don't have to drive as far. And my employees are neighbors who like being able to walk to work. (it's also a necessity--street parking has to be saved for clients). So I'm actually using less energy than I used when I lived in a 1350 sf townhouse in an urban area but also needed to rent office space.
By the way, we have quite a few people living in my house. 4 people in 4000 sf is no more wasteful than 1 person in 1000 sf. We're also letting my nephew stay with us--he can't afford to pay the expensive rent of this area and still go to college. I suppose I would be more moral if I moved into a tiny DC apartment and as a result kicked him out of the house? We have family members visiting all the time. Would I be more moral to say "*********, stay in an expensive hotel because I live in the city and I have no room for you"?
"Trust me, I'd be content with a studio apartment, a small TV with ESPN on, and a subway station within a 5 minute walk from my place."
So move out of Scarsdale and get your own place. Get a real job, and get a bunch of roommates if money is tight. Walk the walk, don't just talk the talk.
Yeah, that's nice. And I know people who have 10 people living with them in a 1 br apartment in the Bronx that's not even 1,000 square feet. They'd give anything to live in a 2 br palce in the crime-ridden building across the street. Maybe if America would wake the **** up people wouldn't be living like this. The Bronx has more HIV/AIDS per capita than any other county in the country and Bronx County is the poorest county in America. They have the hard life no matter how hard you claim yours to be when you sit and ***** about the scratch on your new gas-guzzler. But guess what? They are out helping others, volunteering community service, volunteering at the Boys & Girls Club, and volunteering at church.
"Trust me, I'd be content with a studio apartment, a small TV with ESPN on, and a subway station within a 5 minute walk from my place."
So move out of Scarsdale and get your own place. Get a real job, and get a bunch of roommates if money is tight. Walk the walk, don't just talk the talk.
I'm 17, can't do that yet. But when the time comes I will, and if I'm not banned yet I'll even post the pics of the place and show ya I'm not all talk.
"And I know people who have 10 people living with them in a 1 br apartment in the Bronx that's not even 1,000 square feet. They'd give anything to live in a 2 br palce in the crime-ridden building across the street."
and
"But guess what? They are out helping others, volunteering community serive, volunteering at the Boys & Girls Club, and volunteering at church."
Well there you go--life has handed you an opportunity. I'm sure any of them would love to trade with you. You could move out of mommy and daddy's immoral house in the suburbs, and try out living in the real world. It might just open your eyes, and golly gee, they sound like such nice people--I'm sure you'll all have a wonderful time volunteering at the Boys & Girls Club, and volunteering at church.
C'mon, what are you waiting for? Plenty of people leave home at 17. I did, and it turned out all right (except, of course, that I became completely immoral, you know, living in the suburbs and all...)
The book of Matthew, chapter 7, verse 1-2 "Judge not, lest you should be judged. For with what judgement you judge, you shall be judged: and with what measure ye met, it shall be measured to you again."
Romans 3, verse 23 "For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God."
You do not have to be a Christian, or even religious, to see the point of these verses.
FutureCop, you are only 17. If you live as long as I have, you will do many things you thought you wouldn't do at age 17. Don't be so judgemental. And ESPN? You mean you want cable? What's wrong with over the air TV? We, DH and I, lived with that for the first 20 yrs of our marriage, just got a satellite a few yrs ago.
Also, don't be so quick to assume. I drive a mini-SUV, Honda CRV, gets ~ 22-25 mpg. I drive a big 9 miles round trip to/from work. DH drives a Toyota Corolla a big 12 miles RT. But, we live in the big, bad suburbs of a big sprawly city, Denver. We have a 2500 sq ft house on an 8000 sq. ft lot, on which we grow some of our own food. We volunteer. We give some of our time, talents and money to the church. Shame on us!
Last edited by Katarina Witt; 12-02-2007 at 03:52 PM..
Reason: typo
Thank you pittnurse for the perfect reply. Sorry to be so irritable--I'm reacting to the cold sleet outside but that's no excuse for letting a 17-year-old get to me.
OMG, 17! It takes me back. Come to think of it, I was a self-righteous little fool who thought I knew everything. I took off with my friends to "see America." I thought I was morally superior because a bunch of us lived in a rundown tenement in Montrose, Texas (at the time, a relatively seedy area just off downtown Houston).
We worked as activists for the Sierra Club and stringers for Post. At night we would sit around and drink beer and smoke "cigarettes" and talk about how we knew it all... and we never really did all that much else.
I remember one time we waged a campaign against dining room tables. Yes, we were certain dining room tables were symbols of oppression and pointless materialism. Oh yes, and symbols of our parents. Nobody really NEEDED a dining room table, but trees were being killed to build them. It was immoral!
Who would have guess that by the age of 25 I would be (oh the shame) buying a table of my own? Or that I would own it to this day, and use it almost daily? (I still have a core value that I only buy things that I use--I don't like buying things just to impress others. I guess some of my hippy days are still with me...)
I couldn't have guessed, at the age of 17, what my values would be like at 27, or 37, or 57. I would never have imagined the life I ended up living, or the success that I had (I was certain I would never be able to afford a house... or even a trustworthy car).
Life is full of surprises (and most of them turn out to be good ones).
FutureCop, you are only 17. If you live as long as I have, you will do many things you thought you wouldn't do at age 17. Don't be so judgemental. And ESPN? You mean you want cable? What's wrong with over the air TV? We, DH and I, lived with that for the first 20 yrs of our marriage, just got a satellite a few yrs ago.
It's going to be sort of hard to have just regular over the air TV here in about a year or so, right? With that digital changeover, or whatever.
Anyway, I haven't read this entire thread, and this isn't directed toward anyone in particular, but I just wanted to say that I moved from living south of a town that used to have a lot of "southern charm" where "everyone knew everybody and went to the corner store," that now has, I kid you not, a HOME DEPOT in the center of town. It is turning into what everyone stereotypically considers a "cookie-cutter suburb" -- the housing developments that look alike, giant grocery stores across the street from each other, a Lowe's about 2 or 3 miles from the HD, chain restaurants and a SUPER TARGET (maybe 1/4 a mile from the HD and directly across the street from another grocery store) that comes with its own Cracker Barrel and Logan's Roadhouse. All of this along a two lane road for two miles. (of course everyone that lives there gets really excited about the new big box stores because that's all there is to get excited about there.) They've built strip malls along a civil war battlefield and recently, GM decided to sell off part of the land that is nearby the historic Rippavilla home for "development", so when people visit the home they can go inside and instead of seeing untouched land that has been untouched for ages, they'll get to look out at strip malls and, well, cookie cutter homes.
as i have said previously, to each their own, but I just get so disgusted when I go back to Spring Hill, TN and see what has happened to it. A few years ago I wrote an article for a college class about the growth of the town, and those in charge of "city planning", and I use that term loosely, didn't really seem to care about the sprawling of the city, and it's obvious that they really didn't if they let a Home Depot go up in the center of town. Ugly as hell. They had the opportunity to try to make a good planning effort before the "big boxes" wanted to shove their way into the town. Oh well, good riddance. Spring Hill will soon be similar to the suburbs of Atlanta, where it takes 10 minutes to make a right turn, because there's so much congestion people just can't wait to get on the interstate.
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