Was It Worth It?
Short answer: Yes. All of it was worth it.
Every moment.
That’s what I’m trying to remind myself every day.
In a culture where we put a value on every experience, everything we consume, everything we see or do, we are constantly asking ourselves: Was it worth it?
The reality is that only a society that has access to everything all time can ask that question with impunity. We often do not realize it, but our collective, built-in ability to rank and rate everything is a product of being 1000% spoiled.
Having everything has its consequences. It means we can look down on things. We can refuse. We can reject. We can throw away. Our penchant for excess leads to a corresponding amount of grievance. We’re quick to complain. We’re a society of Karens.
But what if we didn’t have everything. What if we didn’t have the shelter and clothing and food and resources we’re accustomed to? What if our institutions and norms were erased? What if we gave up on what our ancestors have provided to us generation after generation? What if we had no need or want to document our lives on a social media platform because life was so awful that there simply wasn’t a need to point the camera at ourselves and shoot?
So yes, every moment, every experience, everything I encounter is worth it. The good and the bad. I’m savoring each and every little thing. I’m relishing in the pleasures and I’m welcoming the pain. They all have a place in our lives, and it would behoove us to embrace it all.
Why?
Because it’s going to change.
Big time.
There is more on the horizon. Just when we’ve settled into a nice comfortable corner of what we think is normalcy, we’re heading for another corner, and we won’t know what’s around that corner until it’s far too late. We tend to overlook these things. Pampered people are prone to laziness. When we’re in doubt, we call the manager, right?
Right?
Well, some day there won’t be a manager to call. Or the manager will be someone we don’t like. Or it may be a new system or a set of rules we’ve opted for because the old ones didn’t make us happy enough. Or, perhaps the old ways were too hard, and so we abandoned them. Remember, we’re lazy, so we decided to outsource and put our lives in someone else’s hands.
And then, just when we realize that our lives have been upended slowly and methodically, we’ll be at a point where we’ll have to ask ourselves: was it worth it?
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Photo by Priscilla Gyamfi on Unsplash
