Luxury – WildernessPunk

It’s always the same. You try to organize a project, gathering, or event and sometimes it’s like pulling teeth to get certain people to just reply to a simple text. Should I be buying four corn on the cobs or a dozen? Damn it, how much ice am I going to need…

The lack of efficient communication during our current times remains mystifying. Three hundred years ago, you would have to write a letter and sometimes wait months for a reply. Morse code sped things up and you could have the potential to get a reply within a day or so if you had the funds. About a century ago phones began to appear on the walls of the wealthy but a few decades later most families had one in their kitchen.

It was the time of the potential for instant communication, even with people who lived hundreds of miles away. Then things got easier. Soon we had phones in our pockets. Not long after that, phones become computers, cameras, video games, and bankers. Add to this social sites and I can connect with most of my friends in multiple ways.

However, as the ease evolved, it often seems like our motivation declined. Where once I would have to hear my friend’s voice if I wanted to let him know I’d be visiting his town soon, now I could call him, text him, or message him on Facebook. But maybe I can just let him know he’s in my thoughts by clicking like on that almost funny meme he posted.

This gets to the strange part. If I left a message on a friend’s machine 30 years ago, I could see how it might take him a while to find the time to call me back, because, if nothing else, it would probably be a fifteen-minute commitment. This is why it remains bizarre when I can’t get a fifteen second text from someone confirming they’re in on some event. I know I’m not the only one experiencing this because I’m part of some of my friend’s group texts too.

Now I’m not throwing people under the bus. I don’t approve of being linked to your cell and checking it every two minutes. Yuck. I often take hours to text people back. It just seems weird when people go black and just ghost a buddy.

So let me ask you this, is it just me, or do you also experience a decline in human interaction in a ratio to how easy communication is?

Allow me to the review the timeline:

Letters, months long wait.
Morse code, Day long wait
Phone, instant communication between homes
Cell, instant communication from anywhere
Texts/Messaging, the ability to communicate sound bites at quick speeds
The ability to communicate in multiple ways but lacking the motivation for that fifteen second commitment

This also brings up another interesting point/observation. What happens when some friends get right back to you with the data you need but others don’t? At least for me this creates a new type of tier system within the individuals I know. When some people throw down right away and others don’t reply, the latter in some ways become ghosts or half people.

I don’t want to sound like a dick or assume it’s cell phones or the highway, but when you can reply but you don’t where am I supposed to go from here? Products are more expensive than ever and knowing whether I need two pizzas or three could mean the difference of 40 bucks these days and my kids won’t eat cold pizza because they are aliens.

Again, I don’t want to call individuals ghosts or say they are half people, but if two people have cells and one takes a big fifteen seconds to text me back and another doesn’t, they seem less real to me. This doesn’t even reflect how it could be considered an insult that I’m not worth the effort of giving me the thumbs up sign if I ask you if you’re making the BBQ.

I recently passive aggressively let someone slack out of a three-year-old RPG I’m running. He never replied to texts. I had to text his wife to remind him to come and it just became too much effort. I just texted him, got no reply, no show and I gave up. The funny thing was, he never even brought it up when I saw him. Two of his best friends are still in the game with me about once a month and he is oblivious.

My intention isn’t to dish on people, set up some standard of behavior, or say I’m better than the next guy. My main goal is to maximize my chaos by using law. I know this sounds odd but hear me out.

When we were younger, maybe single, most of us were without children etc. Back in those days (or if you are in them now) being chaotic is easier and you could just wing it. If you missed a get-together there would probably be another next week.

As we grow older, we have less chances to throw down. People spread further apart and many of us up our game. For example, at 25 a few sixers of lager and two bags of potato chips was a good Friday night with my pals. At 55 if I’m having the same guys over, it’ll be more like BBQ, iced down craft beers, and some soft cheese. So obviously it is more important to know if people are coming if each person is going to use over 15$ in supplies.

If I’m hosting something and shelling out over a hundred bucks for it, I need to know who’s coming and not at the last minute either. I also know if things fall through, I won’t be doing it again for another couple of months. So yeah, I’m going to use law to organize the Hell out of it. If I just leave it to chance and hope is flows correctly, I’m going to be a pissed off guy hanging with one friend and having so many leftovers I might have to toss out some food. So yeah, I may be a priest of chaos, but if I want everyone there so my chaos can rock, I’m going to come in strong to see it through…kinda, gasp, like an adult.

So hey, if you can join in the fun and want to make sure you are included, take those 10 seconds to communicate in the easiest manner ever invented because we don’t have telepathy yet, but I’m sure it’ll be placed in our brains soon by our AI overlords. Until then… ride the apocalypse my friends.

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As I stand with my little family at the side of the Roaring Fork River in Aspen Colorado, I can’t help but be overwhelmed by the power of the beauty which flows over the landscapes surrounding me. I feel calm and at peace. Joy fills my heart while I remain happy and proud, I can help my children experience such things and bring a smile onto my wife’s pretty face.

Yet, as is my gift, or perhaps curse, other realities tug at the edge of my consciousness. Do I deserve such privileges, and if I somehow do, what have I done to make this so? I’m not sure about you but I don’t think what each of us deserve in life is as simple as a math calculation based on your net income/wealth.

In the past I have been of a mind that no one ‘deserves’ anything. Life is random chaos and humans are animals which aren’t entitled to anything other than air, and if you’re being generous, water and food. However, over the years some of my attitude on this topic may have changed, but I certainly don’t believe in some mystic karma which brings justice to the world. We need to look no further than our last president, the evil criminal who flourished, while thousands of caring families starved to death every hour.

Yet to get back to the subject at hand, let’s drill down to what each of us might deserve in this life and how we could ever measure how someone might be entitled to more than another. As mentioned above, for many, if you can afford it, you deserve to have it, but does this really make sense. What if you can do something only by accident of birth? “Well, my mother bought this house, so now I get to live in this house I had no hand in earning or purchasing.” Do I have more of a right to live in such a nice place, while a person with the same date of birth born into a poor family would never be allowed such an opportunity?

Currently, I don’t even have a real job, but I’m experiencing this ultra beautiful place which some other guy who works 80 hours a week wouldn’t be able to afford. How is this fair? Why would I deserve this more than him?

I suppose someone might claim you get out of life what you put into it. This, of course, helps. Motivation, kindness, understanding, and hard work usually will elevate your quality of life, but when we start with a loaded dice fueled by chaos, I think only a fool would claim we’re all receiving what we deserve or have even worked for.

This doesn’t consider what some people would call luxury, others might consider boring. For some individuals staying in Aspen during the summer might be the height of opulence, while others might prefer camping at the base of a mountain north of Gunnison. The first might think sleeping in a tent on the dirt is low class, while the latter might feel like a king having this billion-dollar view all to themselves.

But I’m getting tangented again.

How should I feel bringing my children here? I’m happy they are getting to experience this beauty and some of this culture. Expanding their minds and giving them variety is almost always a great thing. Can I enjoy it too or does the back of my mind always nag at me that maybe I don’t really deserve this. Or why do I have it when others who struggle more than me don’t.

But how do you measure struggle? Has the workaholic struggled more than I when I didn’t see my kids for 18 months while I escaped the horror of a bad marriage? Should I not be able to enjoy what I have because others won’t? Should I spend months organizing some half-assed communist retreat, where I allow underprivileged kids to come up here instead of my family?

Obviously, I have been asking more questions than I’m providing answers for, and I haven’t even touched on such things as environmental concerns or the impact of travel. But before I wrap this up, let’s try to discover a few answers, or perhaps some balance.

How much luxury does one deserve?

Earning privileges through economic gain has too many variables to be considered a fair unit of measurement in my eyes, so I will be looking deeper than job to pleasure ratios here and try to find measurements which can be considered more universal.

Strong indicators you deserve what you have:

You are enjoying something you built yourself
You are enjoying the kindness of people you have been good to
You have harvested something you have grown or raised yourself
You are basking in the companionship of animals you have cared for
You have made the effort to travel far to reach your destination
You have sacrificed other luxuries to reach your goal
You will make sacrifices after you obtain your goal
You can share your experience/trip/luxury with others and enrich their lives by doing so
You have created something out of nothing which improves people’s lives

These are just a few items which are strong indicators we’re being paid for our efforts in a just manner. What do you think? Are there items we could add to this list? Do you think we deserve whatever we can purchase? Do you believe in Capitalism Karma? Please consider sharing what you might think on the subject for I would be very interested in getting other people’s take on this.

Thanks for your time and now I think I deserve a break and will breathe in the fresh air of the Rockies before I crack open a crafted ale.