Democracy ...
is the worst form of government except for all others.
I was thinking about life in New Zealand in the shower this morning (yes, Dixie, I am back!) and the sense of dread that I have when I think back on the day-to-day life I lived there. It's quite surprising, frankly, to be revolted by the thought of making press coffee and I'm trying to work through that. I think, though, that it has to do with not working for a year. As much as work sucks (in the abstract, so don't take that as a reflection of how I feel about my actual job), not working sucks even more--which put me in mind of the Churchill quote I've paraphrased above. I'd probably say that working is the worst way to live your life, except for all the other ways that you can live it. Yeah, it might be cool to do a monastic retreat for a year, or to be retired and not have the kind of responsibilities a 30-something father of two has, but you know what I mean.
Which of course got me thinking more, this time about the nature of life in the US. Could it be that the same could be said: Of all the ways of living, the way we live in the US is the worst, except for all others. In the abstract, the 'laid back Kiwi lifestyle' is appealing, but in practice? Not so much. In the US, we seem to have a difficult time learning when to turn it all off--the mobile phone, the TV, the go-go-go-ness of it all. In NZ, they seem to have a difficult time knowing when to turn it on--knowing when a sense of urgency is required (and thus the broken window it took a week to get fixed).
As an individual, I can learn to relax in a society that is always moving; but as an individual, I can't act with a sense of urgency in a society that is dominated by a 'she'll be right' attitude.
I was thinking about life in New Zealand in the shower this morning (yes, Dixie, I am back!) and the sense of dread that I have when I think back on the day-to-day life I lived there. It's quite surprising, frankly, to be revolted by the thought of making press coffee and I'm trying to work through that. I think, though, that it has to do with not working for a year. As much as work sucks (in the abstract, so don't take that as a reflection of how I feel about my actual job), not working sucks even more--which put me in mind of the Churchill quote I've paraphrased above. I'd probably say that working is the worst way to live your life, except for all the other ways that you can live it. Yeah, it might be cool to do a monastic retreat for a year, or to be retired and not have the kind of responsibilities a 30-something father of two has, but you know what I mean.
Which of course got me thinking more, this time about the nature of life in the US. Could it be that the same could be said: Of all the ways of living, the way we live in the US is the worst, except for all others. In the abstract, the 'laid back Kiwi lifestyle' is appealing, but in practice? Not so much. In the US, we seem to have a difficult time learning when to turn it all off--the mobile phone, the TV, the go-go-go-ness of it all. In NZ, they seem to have a difficult time knowing when to turn it on--knowing when a sense of urgency is required (and thus the broken window it took a week to get fixed).
As an individual, I can learn to relax in a society that is always moving; but as an individual, I can't act with a sense of urgency in a society that is dominated by a 'she'll be right' attitude.
posted by Jon A at
2:02 AM
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