Capturing the Charm

I believe that the way in which not to become disenchanted with life is to surround yourself with the things that charm you, whether from the past or the present. The things that charm me are the idea of life in the old west, when many men were still honest, and when a hard day's work was actually hard. I love the idea of bringing to the present the ideals of the past that I love. I love the idea of working with my hands to raise a living, of raising good honest kids who know how to love, learn, laugh and work hard. I love preserving the past by storing it within myself. I love old books that capture the charm of the era in which they were written. If I were to tell somebody what to leave behind when they die, I would tell them to leave something beautiful for the future generations to cling to in a world that gets increasingly uglier by the decade. I love the idea of keeping in my home only the things that I truly need and love, and keeping out the things that rankle my soul. My perception is that young people are getting more and more superficial, and that they don't appreciate quality or even know what quality is to begin with! I wish the previous generation had shown them. I wish that every child could have grown up in the country as I did and tasted home-grown food and gone to sleep with a hand-knitted blanket on sheets dried in the sun. I wish all kids could have watched the cows and gathered eggs and raised their own ducks and seen them through their whole life-cycle (short as it may be in the predator-ridden woods). I wish that every child could have been read to from great books, and snuggled with in a rocker by the woodstove. I wish that all children had known what it is to be loved, so that they wouldn't fill that void with superfluous things and thoughts and words; wouldn't fill it with cheap sex and self-hatred.

Economy, Standard, and Luxury.

So, I have always loved the idea of having nice things, and I love that there are so many things out there that fit my tastes so beautifully. I always wanted the best of the best, until I came across an article about housebuilding, and it listed some prices for different levels of quality. It was then that I realized that that was the way to go. I've never been a huge fan of debt, though I have plenty, between the waste of time that was online school that landed me with $8,000 of student loans, and splurging on the SUV we now have. So, because I don't want to feel completely over my head in debt (which to me is over $20,000 at a time), I have landed on this plan to upgrade our "stuff" as our incomes allow. Most of what I have right now is of Economy quality, but I have many things that are Standard, and a choice few things are luxury. These luxury items are especially cherished by me since we could ACTUALLY afford them, and that is a delicious feeling. But anyway, I think this plan will serve me well, and while I may not have EVERYthing right away that I desire, at least I won't be severely handicapped by hundreds of thousands in debt.