Can We Afford Life

How fortunate were my parents, and their parents! They could afford life. They did not have what we have presently but they had the simplicity of it. Gone are those times, it is lost forever for humanity. Children of the present age will neither see it nor know what it was like. They are going to live in the vicious circle of complication and consumerism.

Can we afford life, is something that each and every one of us should ask ourselves? My parents did not have the mobile phones, the computers, the shopping malls, nor the cars to take them about. My father might have owned a bicycle to take him to and fro, from work and the few visits to the market place.

His entertainment was centred around his family and the one in a blue moon visit to the cinema hall or a game of cards when the folks had the free times on festive occasions. Material was bought, and stitched by the people specialized in the art of tailoring. That was only for Christmas.

Talking about material, it was cotton – we could not afford the expensive terricotton. Ironically now, I am forced to wear it and long for the simple cotton fabric. It is beyond reach.

Life as I know it is just a circle of earning spending and earning just to spend it all over again. I bet it is the same for all of us out there, irrespective of which part of the globe we come from. We are trapped in a vicious circle of the consumerism world.

We have all and much much more than our ancestors did have and yet we are not as happy as they were. Our wants are never ending. There must be a reason. I back then and they were happy with the simple life we lead. We tried to make do with what we had.

Now we have been exposed to the technically beautifully things of life, which if we come to see are non-essential for living. It just makes us want it which serves non of the basics of life – food, shelter and clothing.

I ate chicken off my father’s table that was either reared at home or bought from the market that was sold by the vendor who in turned reared it at home. Now at my table, I eat much more chicken which is not as tasty as it were on my father’s table. There must be something wrong with either my taste buds or with the chicken I consume. Food has become so artificial, just to feed the ever growing population of the world.

My father was fortunate to have five children. Sadly, I can only afford to have one. Not to say that I do not love to have more, I just cannot afford them. I am not alone in my way of life, there are many more who fall into the same predicament. The present world has taken away the joy that parents have of being surrounded by a bunch of children.

Factually speaking, this consumer world we are living in is a nightmare and the ones my parents used to live is just a mirage for me now. It is just that I feel the mirage is much much better than the nightmare I am living presently. I bet others are in the same position, that I am in at the moment.

Steven William Pitts