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Where is Everybody Going?
By: Barbara deBriere
October 2006
In Los Angeles we see people racing around in their
expensive cars and large trucks and even the occasional Ford Focus.
I'm not sure where they're going. They race from stop sign to stop
sign until I see them no longer.
The cars that race around the desert in the
commercials seem to have places to go - surely in Los Angeles we have
even more important business awaiting us. Still, I have to ponder, it's
Saturday at 10:43 in the morning - where in the heck is everybody going and/or why are they late?
Maybe the gas companies are behind a new
marketing campaign aimed to increase fuel consumption while the prices
are high? Even I'm not paranoid enough to believe that.
Maybe there's a
prize committee at the stop sign handing out awards to the fastest
driver in a residential area. The truck that passed me on the left
and almost
took out woman and her dog will surely get some kind of prize if so.
He made really great time getting to that stop sign. I don't see
the prize committee or the truck. I must've have been too slow
and missed them.
The marketing we receive from commercials shows the
dullest of cars zipping around winding parking garages and busy roads, picking up beautiful people and
attending sexy events. Meanwhile, traveling at phantom speeds, the drivers
passengers sway left to right, laughing all the way. Neither rising oil prices, our troops in the middle
east, nor our allegiance to countries having an oil stranglehold on us
encourage us to drive more slowly and less frequently.
I'm sometimes insecure about driving the speed
limit. The speed limit is 25 and I'm driving through a
school zone - still, I'm being pressured to speed up - sometimes even
flipped off or honked at for my inconsideration of my neighboring
drivers important schedule. We all know how
hard it is in the face of peer pressure. I don't want the guy
behind me to think I'm aimless or god forbid - cautious. I'd
better pick up the pace and impair my ability to make good judgments.
I feel a sense of sadness for them for drivers I see
zipping around residential neighborhoods and on the freeways.
I realize how hard it is to live in a city where the average new home
costs a half million dollars. I know that many people have
gotten hooked into bad mortgage loans, or high credit card debt or
expensive vehicles that are like second house payments when the loan,
insurance, maintenance and fuel costs are all totaled.
This speedy population is in debt up to their
eyeballs with nothing to lose but the third job that they're racing to
after leaving their second job late. A lawsuit, injury or death
for them might be a welcome break from the daily grind to survive.
There was a time when cars stayed clear of the Beamers, Merc's and
Porsches for fear of doing expensive damage to these expensive cars in
the event of an accident. I believe these cars have a giant
bull's-eye on them to the weary and struggling people with nothing to
lose - hoping for a cash windfall. The silliest class of people created
by our unhealthy devotion to money is the group of folks that try to appear wealthy.
Perhaps driving fast makes us feel important - maybe
even needed? At one time beepers made us look important, then came
the cell phone as the new status symbol. Anyone carrying a beeper
then was labeled poor or sketchy at best. The status of the cell
phone user began to diminish until the Hollywood and big business execs made
it popular again. Talking on the cell phone while rushing from
place to place meant that you were successful and that lots of people
not only wanted to talk to you but NEEDED to talk to you.
People are going to run out of steam though.
They won't win the lawsuits from car accidents that they'd hoped to win.
They will need a new way to "appear rich and important" that doesn't
require as much energy. When they almost lose it all, they may
even realized that they don't want to lose it all and that there is
hope. I believe at that point, people will slow down.
After all, the truly rich don't have to be anywhere.
They aren't late, because they're making the rules and setting the
schedules. My suggestion is to all of you speed demons, living on
the edge and 'making it happen' - if you really want to appear rich,
slow down. Be the boss of your own schedule and try making a few
rules of your own.
You'll probably discover that the rich aren't rich
because they zip around town doing deals in fancy cars. The truly
rich have a family that they delight in, a life that provides joy and
keeps them sane and a conscience that gives them peace at night when
they close their eyes. There is often little time or money left over for
silly toys, silly people and silly mistakes. There's certainly too
much too lose to be irresponsible.
The rich are rich because they devise a plan, save
for the plan, invest in the plan, and work the plan to maturity.
This is not the way of quick money folks. So, what drives a person
to do all of the hard work to become a millionaire or billionaire?
Having silly money to take all of your friends on a yacht trip to the
Greek Islands? Maybe. Not having a clothing budget?
That would be nice. For me though, I will be rich enough when I'm
rich enough to live slow.
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