I Am Glad I Like What I Like

Yes, I am glad that I like what I like.

Lots of my Friends on social media are pleased-as-punch with their new purchase this weekend – The iPad.  Quite right too, it’s a neat looking and very desirable piece of kit.

It struck me that the availability of the iPad in Britain (and soon here in Ireland) will create envy with some people.  It’s a lovely device but it’s not the cheapest thing in the world. 

Few people are entirely escaping the grip of the economic difficulties our green little country is currently in the midst of.  Therefore many people will want one but will simply not be able to buy one.

That’s why I’m glad I like what I like – ‘cos I don’t really want one.



Before you run off, this is not a whinge-post along the lines of, ‘Why can’t I have one?’  I am (thankfully) in the happy position that I could go out and buy one any day I ever wanted to.  Times are not buoyant but there’s ‘enough-to-get-by-on-and-then-some’ and I know that’s not the case for everyone and my heart goes out to them, it really does.

All this post is really about is me celebrating that the things I really love and desire are cheap or free or very easily accessible…

… bloody hell, it’s starting to sound like a ‘family, friends, trees, air and sky’ post now - you must have all left.  All those 'tree and air' things are valuable and wonderful, of course, but they’re rather a given and, let’s face it, a bit of a bloody cliché too.  I’m talking about those more mundane things which we might want or aspire to...

Imagine if your great love was Travel.  Every year, you lived for your sojourn to some far-off place or your weekend away in some wonderful colourful capital city.  Then the current recession would probably mess you up, wouldn’t it?  Imagine if your ‘thing’ was ‘Haute Cuisine’ –  a fine meal in a fine restaurant now and again.  These cutbacks could really interfere with your delight.

But me, I’m lucky.  I like movies, I like books, I like music.  I’m lucky because I can access these things whether times are good or whether times are bad.

I am also lucky because these things are great social levellers.  Look at the very-well-off people in the world.  Let’s pick one… Donald Trump, okay?  Do you like good food?  Well Donald Trump is going to eat better than you.  ‘You like clothes?  Trump’s going to dress better than you.  ‘You like travel?  … you get the picture.

But me?  I can have everything that Trump can have.  He’s got nothing on little-old-me.  What movie can he see that I cannot see?  What book can he read?  What tune can he listen to that I cannot?  (Actually I think there is one Jan Michel Jarre album – ‘Music For Supermarkets’ – that only ever had one copy made of it.  So I can’t hear that - but I’m not that bothered really).

These things I like enable me to gain enjoyment at the same level as the richest man in the whole world.  I like the thought of that.

So when I express delight at your new iPad, it’s genuine.  You’re getting something you desire and you deserve it.  I’m really not envious at all. 

Me? I’ve got a movie to watch…

And that new book sounds really good. 

Doesn’t it Donald?

8 comments:

Cellobella said...

That is a lovely post.

And it makes the things that we share in this global community even more precious.

Thanks for the new perspective.

:)

Fran said...

I'm with you on that. Except, I have just lost £60 of my income per week which means I cannot meet my expenses. That's when it becomes hard, because at the moment I can only think about money (or rather, lack of it). At that point it clouds the idea of relaxing watching something or playing some music, because those things become things of the privileged, of those who don't have to worry how to pay the rent. How can I justify to myself doing a painting or twiddling away on the fiddle? I mustn't think about anything else except lack of money or I will disappear down a black hole of fines and charges. But then I do allow myself to fuck about on the internet, as though a job is going to pop into my Twitter stream or I will chance on a website giving away free cash to creative types. Back to your topic, I play fiddle & accordian and have sat in many sessions with richer people. Their money doesn't necessarily make them play better than me or enjoy it more. They're not going to know what happens on Eastenders before me (sorry, I know, *Eastenders*). For me, the great levelling only begins at the point you earn more than your living costs. That's why (mostly) people on crappy estates who are skint aren't sitting in the garden discussing the theatre or pissing around doing a painting. *To self* "Shut up whinging". *Back to self* "Okay."

A Scot in London said...

What a lovely way to put it. Am off to enjoy my book.Helen Oyeyemi's White is for Witching if you want to know.

Rachel Fox said...

Nice post. I spent part of the weekend at a free music festival here...fantastic...and no-one with hair as bad as DT's!
x

Jim Murdoch said...

I’ll buy an i-Pad or whatever the in thing is at the time when I need to have it to maintain the life I live right now. Right now I need a computer. When our connection to our service provider dies, which it does every now and then, my wife and I wander around like characters out of Spike Milligan’s Q goings, “What’re we gonna do now?” But I don’t have a car. I don’t need a car. All a car does is make you try and cram too many things into a life that’s already overfull. I don’t need a car. I need a computer.

When more books are being produced as e-books than paper books and I need some device to read them I’ll buy one. But my wife bought me an e-Book reader when they first came out and I hardly used it because everything I wanted to read was either in print or I was already sitting at my PC of laptop reading it anyway and so what did I need another device for?

Personally I like the move to electronic media. I like being able to search a book. But I’d rather buy a paper book with a CD stuck on the back as an optional extra. Someone should think of that.

Anonymous said...

Nicely said, Ken. I'd take issue with the statement that Donald Trump dresses better than, well, anybody. He might spend more on his clothes, of course :-)

Materialism is, in my opinion, a dangerous and corrosive part of modern, developed life. It's the simplest pleasures that people often forget.

However rich you are, you can only wear one outfit at a time. However rich you are, you can only eat one meal at a time (and, let's face it, it will be leaving your body in about eight hours).

But your health, your family, your friends, your intelligence, your enjoyment and your perspective are all things that make life as 'rich' as anyone with a bulging bank balance.

I am glad I like what I like. Your blog is one of those things.

Simon Ricketts

hope said...

Ah rachel beat me to it...I was going to say at least I had better HAIR than Donald Trump. :)

But you're right. I tend to appreciate things which don't have "NEW!" "This just in!" "Everyone needs one" plastered on it.

Like you, books are better. Besides, they don't need batteries or come with the volume turned up too loud. ;)

Susan at Stony River said...

Books are the best. And on my income, thank heavens for libraries!

If I had an iPad, I'd end up dropping it in the bathtub or something stupid -- better off without it!

As long as I can afford chocolate once in a while, I'm happy.