finding myself

So called x-spurts, influencers and the almighty world of commerce and trade, always encourage us to charge forward to create our identity. This usually means consuming whatever product they are peddling at that moment. Sociologists call this Conspicuous Consumption is: " the practice of purchasing luxury goods and services to publicly display wealth, status, or social prestige rather than for functional utility". This lifestyle is rarely good for your spirit, or the environment. It creates piles of "hard rubbish" for collection each few years as the new trend sweeps through your life. Many years ago a curmudgeonly  TAFE teacher once told my class in welfare how ' the system" works. "The technology for storing and listening to music is far in advance of the shops. As they introduce music discs they have three completely different systems that will be placed on the market as the outdated system has saturated the market. They are now marketing the compact disk, then there will be a small personal device (MP3 Player) that can store thousands of songs, then phones that will do the same all on one device". He described the pricing too; initially quite expensive to attract premium buyers, after the topend of the market is full, cheaper prices and a desire to be seen as fashionable, will attract working class families. Not until the market is flooded will the next device be released. They have these systems waiting. What Albert didn't need to explain was that its not about customer satisfaction, its about wealth and power. I wanted to know where he got his information, because they were still rolling out these technologies, as described, after he passed away. 

And so, as I approach Albert's age when he told me about the system I am putting it together and am less inclined to blame myself for wasting money. 

Anyway, where was I? Ah yes, being true to yourself, not the market, big business or peer pressure. One thing I did snap up lately was about a good Life Goal: To satisfy both your 8 year old self and 80 year old self. I read this as being true to your Inner Child while living a life that will satisfy and please you as an old man. 

The overriding image of my childhood is of a sunbaked smiley kid moving about chasing bees, going for a swim or playing footy. More often than not I was wearing shorts and saying hello and smiling at everyone I met. What held my attention, wasn't how I was consuming other than food the mum put on the table. No it was being fascinated by bees and bugs up close, the terror and thrill of pitting myself against the sea, nature or my opposite number on the football field. Yes I was competitive and quite successful, but the satisfaction came from evading a tackler or in turn performing a good tackling technique. In the surf it was just to push to my limit and come back alive. The word gusto strikes me, always having a go, boots and all, I order to keep myself happy. 

As one gets older, you realise for perhaps the first time in your life that not everyone is or was not like me. Some were too fearful, or even had no interest on nature or really only wanted to dominate others in order to be "the winner". But if youve been around the sports field long enough, you learn that there's always someone better. You really can only do your best, as Sir Robert Baden-Powell said. 

So I'm thinking, if I'm going to give my 80 year old self something to smile about, I better get on with it.