Little Man... I know you are in for a major trauma with the whole birth thing about to happen - your future Mama is beginning to question the whole "keep-it" decision while waiting for the epidural to kick in & your father cannot go for a few pints after watching the Irish national soccer team beat England 1-0 because he has to go to the hospital and pretend he'd rather be there waiting in the canteen.
But listen, let me save you a lot of heartache and distress by saying the following:
1. You are perfect at this moment.
2. The only 4 things you will absolutely need when you hand in your notice at your current abode are: air to breathe, food to eat, water to drink and a safe place to sleep.
3. Having feeling good inside as the status quo is a product of your outlook on life and cannot be bought.
4. Your current abode is in matters of size, decor, fashionability and function exactly the same as everyone elses was at your age. When you complete your life-journey, you will not care very much for your physical accomodation. Every abode you occupy in the meantime is a choice of varying degrees and NOT an indication of your worth as a human being.
5. One of the most important relationships in your life with be with a thing called "mooh hoho ney". "Mooh ho ho ney" is not your reason for living - nor is it a fellow human being. It is there to enable you to live your life in accordance with the social mores you find yourself in. You are it's master. Tame it before it bites you.
6. Mother Earth loves you. She breathes life into everything everyday. She's breathing life into you right now. She wants you to live a full and happy life. Please allow her to live a full and happy life also by taking her needs into account when you have the choice to. She loves non-wasteful people.
7. You are a complete individual human being. There are many many many others like you. You are no better nor no worse than any of them. Please don't seek the approval of those who withhold it for their own reasons. Please be generous with praise for those you admire - particularly those younger than you. Buying drinks for sullen relatives you hardly ever see, buying sports cars to impress female human "10s" and signing up for a mortgage to impress the Joneses all cost money. Saying "I hope you know I think you are a wonderful little girl" to your cousin's daughter is free and of infinitely more value.
8. The true price of anything is how much life you exchange for it. Anything you may possess/ desire outside the 4 necessities (now..at which point did I explain the 4 necessities to you ?? C'mon you know this... don't roll you eyes at me.. "2". Good Little Man. Well done). Anything outside these necessities is a luxury. You can hand back or sell luxuries when you have used and are tired of them. You cannot ask for a refund of the amount of life you exchanged for them.
9. Look around you... Please... go ahead.
Feel around... all warm and gooey isn't it. Well believe it or not Little Man... This place that jump-started that little heart of yours is most likely to break it in two. It is also a financial danger of nuclear ferocity. I know you won't understand this now buddy......it won't cost you anything to take off from the runway lined by your mother's legs but, My God.... listen boy...don't say you weren't warned.....
be careful what you do to enable yourself to make a landing at another airport.... is all... nod nod.. wink wink...
More of that later buddy.
10. This advice is free. Until you reach 21 years of age, remember that free advice - with no strings attached - is the only advice worth listening too.
Best of Luck Little Man :-)
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April 12th, 2008 at 08:35 pm
10 years behind eh? If that's in terms of consumer debt, perhaps that's not a bad thing.
April 13th, 2008 at 06:16 am
Thanks for the welcome :-)
I have been visiting this site for a while now and deciding to sign myself up :-) We don't really have a site of this quality and membership over here.
btw, I spent a lovely summer in New York and have family over there - I know it is always dangerous to generalise but I really like Americans for many reasons. Not crazy about your current president (sorry for the political jibe :-) ) but unlike a lot of other Irish people, I separate my feelings for the American people from my feelings towards the incumbent of the White House.
In relation to the 10 yrs thing and consumer debt, you are bang-on. You see, Ireland was a relatively poor country up until approx 1995 -1997. Then BANG Celtic Tiger arrives and we're rich. The banks have literally thrown credit at people for the last ten years. Unfortunately, the Irish people as a whole have no idea how to manage money - they never had much of it and lived paycheck to paycheck.
The last 10 yrs have been spend, spend and spend. Houses - bigger than they need and flash brand new cars. These are the biggest problems. Even though the economy has slowed down and we will not see another "Celtic Tiger" for a long time - if ever - people have not changed their spending habits. I think the problem is we have adopted spending as an emotional comfort-blanket and separated it from any sense of practicality and reason.
In short, I watched the documentaty "Maxed Out" through a link posted here and can see the exact same thing happening in Ireland in 10-20 yrs.
April 13th, 2008 at 08:51 am
April 13th, 2008 at 08:55 am
April 13th, 2008 at 01:06 pm
April 13th, 2008 at 03:54 pm