Going Nowhere

GOETHE SAID that when one travels abroad, one learns to appreciate what one has at home. everyone has experienced this. Life becomes hum drum, boring. Get up, go to work, come home, go to bed. Get up, go to work....finally, that long awaited two week vacation rolls around, we pack up the car, and head out to Yellowstone or somewhere for that beautiful but all too brief respite from reality. It runs out that we are exhausted by the time when we get home, and need a vacation to rest up from the vacation. The respite was fun, the trip a success, but when we pull into our old familiar driveway and park, we are first relieved that the house is still standing, and that the pictures of Yellowstone we posted on Facebook didn't result in our possessions being sold on Ebay, and we are super happy to be back on home soil. Everyone has experienced this; glad to get away, glad to get home, and even glad to be back in school or at work. As Goethe said, habit is our only comfort; we dislike doing without those unpleasant things to which we have become accustomed. Psychologists call it "the hedonic treadmill" from the word "hedonism". We build a new house, get a new car, or win the lottery, and the first day we are thrilled, filled with joy. the second day, not quite so much. within weeks or months we have settled down, and even a million dollar home or bank account becomes ho hum, familiar, and we realize; we still have the same back back, the same boring marriage, job, and the same neurotic hang ups in our heads. Only the window dressing, only the packaging has change. the solution is simple, if we utilize it. Learn to appreciate the simple things, learn to appreciate our modest lifestyle, seek no frills, keep up our steady, boring routine and know that we are producing, contributing, and, most of all...throw in a little variety. A two day vacation every few weeks will do just fine. A new friend, a new hobby, something always entering our lives to renew us,and to remind us that the treadmill, the old daily grind, isn't half as bad as we sometimes thin, that in fact our daily  lives our full of adventure and new experiences, within the framework of our old familiar homestead. And, above all; use your disposable income to invest in experiences, not material things with which we will become bored in short order. Great memories are, ultimately, all that we have left.