Life Experiences Are What Really Matter

Our consumer oriented culture has always told us that owning more will make us happy. The big house, the fancy car, a closet full of designer labels, the expensive stuff we needlessly collect.  No matter how luxurious, large or expensive do not really make us any happier. These material goods do not define us, and many times are just part of the ongoing competition with those around us.

The pursuit of happiness by acquiring stuff that will soon become junk is quite a waste. This junk will soon be replaced by newer, more expensive stuff that will be once again replaced in a never-ending cycle.

Will possessing more make us exponentially happier?  If owning five pairs of shoes makes you happy, will owning say ten pairs make you twice as happy? Does not work that way. We cannot buy our way to happiness, that is not the way there.

Remember the Palm Pilot?  It was a hand-held device that allowed you to take notes, store data and the like while away from your computer.  In a way, a precursor to the smartphone. Anyway, I worked with a techno freak who would get the latest version as soon as it became available.  Did not care how much it cost. He would then go on and on about how great it was, but a few months later an updated version would then be released and he would have to have it.

The one that he had purchased not too long ago and had been the greatest invention ever was now rendered a useless piece of crap in no time.  It soon ended in the junk drawer with all the previous models.

A car is a must, a necessity, but it does not have to be a Maserati. Beautiful machines that they are. Not the best option when much more practical ones are available.

We do not need to buy every single thing that we see and like.

There is a rapidly expanding belief that life experiences feed the soul more than possessions do.  The happiness found in making purchases fades away and like empty calories that will soon have you hungry and in need of more, but experiences; no matter how small will last forever.

I wanted to see if this was really true.   Last summer I went on a cruise with my sons. I purchased some t-shirts and shorts for the trip. When I asked them about these items they could not tell me brand or color. These items were purchased a few months ago and were still in their closets.

Next I asked them about an amusement park we went to more than three years ago.  Last minute thing as our original plans did not pan out. The park had never even made our list of possibilities, but we could find nothing else to do on short notice. Smiles came along with the memories.  They remembered everything.

They mentioned how good that wood-fired pizza was, the rides, everything they liked. They even remembered the smallest most insignificant details like the tan line on my collar-bone and the birds that took some french fries from our table.

I have shoes in my closet that only come out when I clean said closet.  Never wear them and don't even remember when or why I purchased them. On the other hand I remember the first  time I went zip-lining like it was yesterday. It was about 10 years ago; took my kids because they wanted to do it.  Me, I did not care for it at all. I remember thinking "I am going to die" when I took that initial leap.

After the shock and ridiculous fear of falling to my death passed, amazing, words cannot begin to describe the event.  I am hooked

I was speaking to a friend just recently.  She was quite upset; her car had been broken into and all her kids' soccer gear was taken. She was upset over the $200 window, her son was upset over the new kicks and the new and still not used goalkeeper gear.

Meanwhile her daughter cried over the backpack, nothing more than swag she received at last year's Disney tournament.  Not junk, or cheaply made, but the most inexpensive item taken. The memories created while there, the friendships, the simple joy all taken. Not really taken,  but a piece of it gone. Miller High Life said it best "...Good life comes from the moments you have, not the things you own.

Ask yourself what adds more to your live. I bet you will get the same answers I did. Guess the experiences in fact add more to our lives than stuff does.  Pay for the experiences, not for junk, those last forever.



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