054. The Problem
Things are never as they seem.
We all know that comparison is the thief of joy. However, have you ever considered that comparison is the death of creativity.
Some time ago, I heard that the worst financial decision you can make is living next to someone with a nicer house than yours. Every time they have a renovation, or buy new furniture, you will find yourself wondering if your home would be better if you did the same. Every one of your neighbour's purchases then becomes your new aspiration, an aspiration that takes a toll on your bank account.
I imagine, once upon a time in history, there was a first for everything. The first time someone created fire, the first time someone created an umbrella, the first time someone created a roof, and the first time someone created a house. Those creations that offered value when then shared among others. In time, they would be able to create their own umbrellas, roofs, and homes. When those skills were perfected, there was room for improvement. Better umbrellas, better roofs, better homes.
Most of us inherited a world that only had room for improvement. All the things that had been necessary existed in abundance. With the wheel invented, there was only room for improving it for different terrains, then for different speeds, and different shelf life. A world where things could be made better but, rarely created.
Today, the scopes of comparison go beyond houses. There is always someone somewhere who seems to have something for you to aspire towards. However, we never get the full picture of why someone decides to renovate their living room or buy new furniture. Instead, we see moments of their happiness and decide the source of their happiness to be these superficial changes.
Every now and again, I find myself in conversations about the cost of living. It doesn't matter where the person comes from, but, the conversations are always the same. The same struggles, and the same confusion over why their home does not make sense. In every version of the conversation, there always exist the delusion that there is somewhere better. Somewhere where the cities are cleaner, the shops offer more variety, or, somewhere the price of fuel is near free. All of these conversations focus on how it could be better over there, meanwhile disregarding the people in that place who share their exact same struggles. All that is seen is how it looks better than what they know, at least on the surface.
This makes me wonder, can the worst financial decision a country can make be being located next to a country that is nicer than it is?
Everywhere you go, cities are replicas or echoes of other places. Unless forged by nature, rarely will you find a place without monuments and buildings that are reminiscent of other places. The jobs available, the style and size of houses, the variety of conversations, the beliefs and schools of thought; everything appears to exist as an echo of another.
The more we look to our neighbours and see only what we lack, the more we allow ourselves to believe that better can only be found in those places. In so doing, we negate all the possibilities that could exist from focusing on the problem.
Dear reader, thank you for following along on this mini thought. I have tried my best but I am not sure if I have done all that I could. I have been writing at the very end of the day lately, and, I feel like my thoughts are not connecting as well as they could. So, tomorrow I aim to get to writing earlier, give myself the best shot at doing all I can. I hope you are back here tomorrow to find out how it goes.
