I've been thinking all day about my last show radio show with krystle, mostly because I walked away filled with both inspiration and more unanswerable questions. In an effort to organize some of the ideas that wont leave me alone, I will attempt to wrestle my computer's keyboard once more, hopefully it will surrender and produce something coherent.

Exiting the Rat race

I'm sure I don't stand alone in the admiration of those individuals who have effectively exited the so called rat race. The brave souls that for a reason or another decided to just say "I'm out" as if the events to come where not in the least important. For one, we all want to believe we have certain control over our own future and we enjoy pretending that somehow someway our plans will work out in the end. In hindsight of course life with all its unpredictable twists always ends up moving the goal posts, but a powerful gift we posses is adaptation.

I want to make clear that I'm not necessarily complaining about my life choices, I'm simply making an observation after the fact. I'm saying all this attempting to think back with the mind of a younger version of me, the one that held more idealistic positions. Why these thoughts are conflicting, at least to me is because I happen to not be able to recognize the moment where chasing the all mighty dollar became the priority, the moment I unconsciously stepped into the machine as one of its millions of cogs.

From a distance It seems like the people who recognize the slave-like lifestyle we participate in and walk away are much happier. But to get the whole picture is important to recognize the apparent comforts that must be given up when such a decision are made. Exiting the system, requires exiting its superfluous comforts too.

Questioning Needs

We seem to be wired to accumulate things, this might be an ancient behavior best suited for a world with scarce resources that does no longer exist in the same manner. It makes sense to imagine a tribal society where the strongest of members where able to safely store the most resources for themselves and their descendants. Where this whole thing gets confusing or at least to me, is that most of the things we default to collect, are not needs themselves but unnecessary wants disguised as needs.

Do we need a new car in the driveway? Do we need the newest cell phone? Do we need a big home? If you are fumbling the ball attempting to knit justifications for declaring these material possessions needs, you might be proving my point for me. A human seems to need very little, aside from good shelter, safe food and good company the rest fails to stand in the same category.

Now, this is not to say I don't want things, you don't want things or that its a bad thing to want things. My point is simply to make the observation that those who have effectively "exited the game" asked themselves these questions and removed the fabricated needs from their life. Is this the right thing to do? Is this what we should all do? Nobody can answer that question for us or at least that is my current opinion. This line of personal questioning is just another philosophical mirror I intend to use more often.

The leap

Is probably the scariest of steps, because it requires to shutdown preconceived notions of truth and rebellion against social consensus. I think that many of us would find ourselves being "intervened" by a family remember if we where to express selling it all for and moving to a beach in Cancun to see what happens. Its not because of myopic thinking that a concerned parents, brother or spouse would voice those fears, but because of programming that we have all been exposed from an early age.

I must confess that one of the words that produces an almost allergic reaction to my psyche, is to hear people refer to the "leapers" as I will now refer to them, as the "WOKE" ones. This is not because I don't believe in the concept or anything of the sort, but because I'm inclined to believe that anyone who is "woke" or "enlightened" rejects words of senseless idolatry.

But because I love having these conversations with other fellow sapiens, allow me to finish this post by asking you my dear reader:

"Would you do it? Would you leave it all behind and just go?"

Other posts by yours truly

_{• Plans for the weekend
• Quitters never quit at quitting - Dmania is no more
• Bright and early
• Songwriter Shop talk with our very special guest @luzcypher
• Join me tonight for a special edition of Songwriter Shop talk with @luzcypher}