As a kid I always wanted to have a Porsche as a daily driver, a Lamborghini for fun, a Bentley for long trips, and a Hummer for all of my off-road adventures. That’s an expensive garage. The house would need to have ample space for these vehicles along with rooms for playing pool, watching movies, playing video games, painting, reading, watching fish, cooking, eating, exercising, relaxing, and sleeping. The house needed to be on a piece of land where I could enjoy activities like walking in grass, swimming in a lake, planting a garden, harvesting fruits and vegetables, bee farming, playing tennis, hitting baseballs, riding a bike. Since the land was touching a body of water I would then need a place to dock my fishing boat, luxury yacht, and personal watercrafts. Luckily I’m not into flying planes so there would be no runway on this plot of land and no need for a sea plane. Anyway it is all a dream. It would be so cool to have a place like this and some people in America do have these things.
I would always think I want to be rich. If I was rich I would be so happy. I would have nothing to worry about because I have everything I need. It took a 1/3 of life’s journey for me to realize that this idea of being rich was so fundamentally flawed, and that my understanding of the word rich was wrong.
The first definition of rich is “having a great deal of money or assets; wealthy.” -google search
This is the definition of rich that I knew and thought to be true. I should have scanned the page further to read.
2. plentiful; abundant.
This definition in only two words and has so much more depth. There is no relation between the word and money or wealth in this definition. Even when you read the definition of wealth you have to scan even further through the iterations of definitions to find a meaning that does not pertain to monetary value. These words are a byproduct of capitalist ideals and built the materialistic society that we inhabit today.
Abundant or plentiful is existing or yielding large quantities. Of what you ask. You see the material world is what we see tangibly. To be rich in my definition is to be happy with what you have. The basics of life are fulfilled for mostly everyone in America. A place to sleep, food to eat, and clean water. The rest is our desire and how we want to be perceived in a society that places monetary value on practically everything. To be rich is to be free from the notion that we need more money. There will always be more. Even a billionaire with a fleet of private jets wants a launching pad for their own spaceship. The returns diminish at some point. If that’s what it takes for one to be comfortable in their own skin, so be it.
Not me.
I have enough. I am enough. I am rich!
Original artwork by Doug Rimler find me on Instagram @DJR.Art or visit my website at www.djrart.co. Any images you see can be available as prints in many sizes please inquire.