Current Thoughts
| Every Christmas season, we’re bombarded with images of “the good life.” A luxury car with a bow in the driveway. Perfectly decorated homes lit up like theme parks. New gadgets, new toys, new stuff. The message is loud and clear: more things = more happiness. But here’s the problem—happiness is a fleeting emotion, based off of circumstance. It’s short lived and fragile. Yesterday I didn’t have a Lexus; today I do—so I’m happy. But what happens when that new thing gets old? Or worse, when life takes something away? We’ve been sold a lie: that happiness is the goal. But happiness isn’t a worthy pursuit. What’s worth pursuing are the things that last—love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control. They can’t be bought and wrapped up with a bow. So here’s a question as we close out the year: have your stockpiles of these grown? Or have you just added more stuff? It’s easy to end the year anxious, overextended, overstimulated and and overindulged. Maybe the best thing we can do this season isn’t to max out our credit cards and calendars or stuff our faces—but to recalibrate. |
Things I like
I’m having a hard time thinking of a modern day institution more broken than our health care system. We spend at least 3x more on healthcare than any other country, yet our health outcomes are far worse and unwinding the system is going to be damn near impossible due to the amount of money being generated by it. So what can you? Actually the best thing you can do, both for yourself and the system as a whole, is take responsibility of your own health.
Things to Check out
Have a great week!
David
