The Next Chapter

Imagine your life as a book... an interesting one, with twists and turns, mishaps and adventures, and culminating in the perfect ending. What would be your story? More importantly, would anyone read it? This is the kind of stuff we thought about in an earlier chapter of my life story, back when I was an English major. We would sit around and ponder, discuss, debate esoteric ideas and generally come to no conclusions, but perhaps we came a bit closer to knowing ourselves?

I love to read but I am admittedly highly critical about endings of books. If I ever write a book I imagine I would never be able to finish it because the ending is everything. No matter how great the story is, if the ending is bad then the whole thing is tainted. And I don't always want a happy ending, but it must be appropriate.

So if I was writing my life story, how would I like it to end...
And since I have at least a moderately interesting middle of the book,
Then I wouldn't want to have an inappropriate ending...
And if in my mind at least, then ending is everything...
And if I am supposing that someone will want to read my story...
Then I must conclude that I will be leaving a legacy...
And if a legacy is important to me...
Then I must have an heir...
Thus.
I must have a child.


But, will having a child provide for me a nice ending, or just the next chapter? Maybe it is just the character arc that I need?

Would you rather have time or money?

Overwhelmingly the answer to this question is time, yet in our society we do not live like this is true.
The average American will work more than any other person on the planet. We work more hours and get less vacation than every other industrialized nation. We also have the biggest houses, cars, and more gadgets. But when I ask my peers who are admittedly "successful" people, nearly every single one of them state they would rather have more time. So why do we keep working so hard?
Is it in our culture to just keep working?
Is it too hard to cut back on working, i.e. it would be unheard of to ask your boss to work 4 days a week instead of 5 and make less money?
Are we just addicted to money, consuming things and the addage is true: "the more you make, the more you spend?"

My situation is classic. Gary and I have worked our asses off to get where we are right now. He has spent 9 year in a job he LOATHES to support me and our lifestyle. He was just getting ready to quit the job he hates when he was given a promotion. This promotion included a large salary increase, more flexibility, and more responsibility. Now he is working 12-14 hour days, couple this to my 12 to 14 hour days and our life is now work. Major bummer. But shouldn't we be happy now? What are we complaining about...wouldn't most people be ecstatic to be financially secure? Doesn't everyone want a nice house, 2 cars, a boat, a dog and 2.4 kids?
I guess the grass is always greener...

Has anyone seen the most depressing movie ever made: Redemption Road. If you haven't seen it...don't. IF you have then you will know why it is so depressing. How sad is it to give up on your dream?

You know I hate complainers who don't do anything to fix the situation. So in a very short time, our now cushy salary will be decreased by 66% and Gary will have what we both want...TIME!
We have unconventional way to live life, but who cares. Isn't life here to be lived?
First stop Alaska...