(Not sure if I’ll keep this a thing, but seems like it may be fun to lay down some things I’m thinking of and not just in relation to my work.)
House Hunting
Currently being in limbo looking for places to live has sparked some thoughts in me. One being how grateful I am to be in a position to basically be choosing where I want to live next. And two being how different so much of the world is when it comes to housing and general well-being.
Did you know that if you earn more than $50,000, you are in the top 1% of the richest people in the world? Just think about that for a second. While you are, let this one sink in as well: if you earn even just around $10,000, you are roughly in the top 15%.
Population Overkill
As of right now (September 2016), there are close to 7.5 billion people living on this tiny, blue speck of a planet. China in the lead with 1.4 billion, and Australia in 53rd place with ~24 million.
There are often phrases exclaimed such as there are more people alive today than has ever been alive, but these statements are far-fetched. Roughly 110 billion people have lived on this Earth so far according to statistics, so we need to get rid of that one.
A surprising thing to note, however, is how much they expect the population to grow over the next 80-odd years.
Can we handle that?
Morals
Going back to the thought at the beginning about being in the top 1% of the entire globe. How does that make you feel? A whole 99% of the Earth is without food, clothing, shelter.
How can we justifyingly state that we are “good” each and every day with our “morals”?
“I’m a good person, I don’t do bad things. I pay my taxes on time.”
What does that even mean? Being “good”, for one, was once attributed to catching witches and beheading them and burning their sorcery-goodness away. Being “good” was once thinking that invading countries and inflicting mass genocide was normal.
Peter Singer, an Australian philosopher, argues that the way we live each day, within Western society with our cars, houses, iPhones, food access, is similar to us walking by a muddy pond where a child is drowning, and us choosing not to help them as we would prefer not to ruin our favourite outfit.
An extreme analogy, of course, but it still kinda fits the bill as to how we live our lives every day.
I mean, how long has it been since you had to go down to the river and carry a bucket of water back to your house to bathe in? How many nights this week have you slept in a bed with a roof over your head? How many times this month have you worried about where your next meal is going to come from?
Maybe one day humans will look back on this era and shake their heads in awe at how we, today, are so stuck in our mass hoarding, mass consuming, and mass indulging ways.
2017
Just around the corner is October. I and you, most likely, say it every year: Where the hell has this year gone?
But, like any time of the year, it is always a good time to think about where you’re at today and perhaps where you’d like to be after another successful orbit of our sun.
Other good thoughts to have include: Is what I’m doing every day what I want to be doing? And, do I wake up every day dreading what I have to do?
These kinds of questions should be strongly addressed. Or not. After all, you can always just wait another 365 days to finally do something you want to be doing with your one life.