It's Only a Problem if You Don't Have a Solution

 There will always be changes and challenges in life -- because that is the nature of life.  If things never changed, then that isn't living -- so the challenge of life, is to be able to deal with those changes and challenges -- and not as the dying and disabled do, demand that things never change until they get their wishes fulfilled, soon enough.

So it is not as though the fortunate never have any challenges, but that they are good at dealing with them -- launching them onto higher and better.  That is why so many, squander good fortune no matter how much they have.  It is never enough -- because they will always find a way to undo their advantages.  And that is why it is important and necessary to be able to discriminate and distinguish the good from the bad, and act appropriately, rather than in declaring that there are no differences in everything.  Predictably, that is the surest path to disaster -- as places like San Francisco and Portland, Oregon report the follies of their ways daily.

What is the quality of life when the cost of living is astronomical while the possibilities of enjoying any fruits of their labors are zero?  The smart ones leave town as soon as they recognize the pattern -- as it will be more than a lifetime for the Detroits and Baltimores of the world to turn around -- and there is no sense in wasting a good life, even if that is where one is born in.  But that is the reason people move around to find their best environment and most favorable conditions for health, happiness and success.  

I know the media is full of stories telling us otherwise -- but it is up to each to determine the best for oneself -- and not merely serve the ends of the most exploitative defenders of the status quo.  People who move, generally do better than those who stay in one place all their lives.  They get to discover the many choices and options available -- and not merely settle for whatever situation they find themselves in -- as the best of all possible worlds, if not the only one.

On the other hand, it is quite possible for one to travel the world over -- and only live the same life and do the same things no matter how different the opportunities.  Such people will want to return "home" no matter how short their vacation from the only life they have known -- even planning for their next vacation while on their present one.

Obviously, such people are never truly "there" wherever they are -- but are always somewhere else.  Because of that "absence," they do not see the urgency and significance of each present moment -- when the world is encountered and resolved in the actuality.  They think all those problems and challenges will be resolved in some other time and place -- while we continue on doing all those things that are the problems.

In some places, that is even building massive transit systems to nowhere -- because they provide a few short-term high-paying construction jobs for the next administration to tear down.  That is because the funding is available and if they don't grab it, somebody else will.  So we need to look beyond the funding to see what really needs to be done -- and do that instead, even if nobody else pays us to do it.  We do it for ourselves -- as our greatest good.

Obtaining maximum funding, is not the same as solving a problem.  In fact, that often ensures that the problem is extended into perpetuity -- because the money is so good, it would be stupid not to take advantage of it.  But then those problems grow out of control and threatens to destroy all the good with it.  And so the solution lies not in the money derived from it, but other measures of success as the real tangible payoff.

How is that measured?  That is the quality of life -- apart from the cost of living.  An astute observer will even observe that they may be inversely related.  "The best things in life are free," and it is human ingenuity that makes it so.  That is the resolution of any problem -- rather than its continuance -- no matter how profitable.  Obviously, that is the post-money economy/society,  in which people directly produce what they value.  If that is health and prosperity, that means doing what needs to be done above all else -- and not waiting to be paid by others to achieve it for oneself, because that will never happen.

Some things can only be achieved for oneself, by oneself -- and not by doing all the wrong things, and hope to be bailed out by all the others.  That's not going to be a society (government) that works.  Instead, people will be rewarded for all the wrong things -- and the results are obvious.  Those cities become unlivable -- and the smart ones flee -- for the proverbial greener pastures.  Thus the question uppermost in many people's minds, is where are those places now?

Those who truly know, are not saying -- lest they also be ruined.  "Paradise" is where you don't want to be.  The mass media, as usual, will always be the last to know -- dependent as they are, on asking somebody else.  If they knew, they wouldn't be telling anyone else.  That's not what they get paid for.  Rather, somebody pays them to sell their "damaged goods."

Once we are clear on that, we can see through to the unsaid.  Therein lies the truth of the matter.  One has to do their own homework and research -- but has access to all the records anybody else does -- including the studies, and how they were conducted.  Many things will not add up and make any sense -- but some things will -- and make the world rational and whole again.  That is the process and evolution of thought, otherwise, the world seems to fall apart.  It requires a higher understanding than the conventional view can fathom.

How People Grow "Old"

 The obvious way to tell a person's age and condition -- is to look at the most obvious and visible parts of their body -- which is the head, hands and feet -- where the circulation is likely to be the poorest, even while containing the most vital and important faculties of the body -- the senses located at the head (seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, thinking), hands (grip and touch), and feet (balance and locomotion). They are usually the first to go -- and that is why they are usually reliable indicators of age and condition. Only an exceptional few belie the usual trajectory of this deterioration with age.  Many people are not aware of this -- so commonplace is it in the older people -- characterized by this predictable obvious pattern of deterioration.  For the few who show no such deterioration at these extremities, it is very difficult to assess their age -- because they defy the predictable and expected pattern.

Along with the deterioration in appearance is the lack of movement at those extremities  -- which are actually designed for movement rather than the immobility they become with age.  Many fail to notice this lack of movement (animation) because they are not observant -- and may even have been taught as children, not to pay attention to these things in others.  And so they fail to pick up important clues for why it happens in older people generally, and even to younger people who lack those articulations.  They simply never think to move in that way -- although they can.  On the other hand, a very small segment of the population, train themselves to move skillfully and masterfully in those ways most don't even think is possible, and may have even been advised that such movements are dangerous and should never be done -- even while millions of people in the world may do it routinely up to the days they're still capable of doing anything.

One of the most common examples is the simple squat-sit -- done by many indigenous people in the habit of moving frequently until the day they die.  On the other hand, contemporary society produces and encourages many to move as little as possible -- and even requiring the assistance of motors or others to shift them from one position to another -- they've grown so unused to moving at all, with no plan or intention of improving those capabilities from here on out the rest of their days.  One would expect them to become increasingly less capable  -- with no program for ensuring they maintain those capabilities and movements.  The nerves making such movements possible, are no longer fired, let alone systematically exercised for improvement.  Many are convinced that is even the preferred way to be -- to do as little as possible for themselves the rest of their days.  Yet who is going to do it for them?  Maybe their children or grandchildren, or as is becoming increasingly the case, a paid caregiver.

The furthest thought from their mind, is that they should become increasingly self-reliant and independent -- as though that is only what stupid people do -- because they have not figured out how to make everyone else do everything for them.  And though such a life of idleness and uselessness are highly fashionable, as a practical matter, that is not the best way to go -- and go one surely will.  So a lot of this premature demise is cultural -- and popular, rather than the best nature has evolved.  It requires individuals to take it to the next level -- just as it always has been.  The struggle for survival does not end at 40 or 60 -- but remains a lifelong challenge as long as each individual lives.  It just becomes more individualized -- and personal.

What worked for most at 20 -- may not work for anybody at 80.  It is far more likely to be the case that what works at 80, works for most at 20 -- rather than vice-versa.  Ironically, it is easier to see what works at 80 than what works at 20 -- because there are fewer confounders to weed out.  Participation rates conveniently weed out those who are still in the game -- from those whose best are far behind them.  Of course, some still talk about their youth as the prime of their lives -- rather than their present being the summation of all their days.  Obviously, that requires a wholly new orientation and meaning to our lives.  Is it half over, or only half begun?  That difference in attitude may be the most significant marker of the new age from the old one -- and whether life gets better, or disintegrates.  Of course the last to know, will be those who should know better.

They are too full of the old knowledge -- and not the one being discovered and created.  It's always been that way.  The harbingers of the new, have never been embraced by the defenders of the status quo -- no matter how dysfunctional and hopeless things were.  A certain death was preferred to any unknown yet to be discovered and revealed.  Those are the great moments in human consciousness  and evolution.  Not simply more of the same in a slightly modified form.  An entirely new way of being must emerge.  It's always been that way.  That is the evolution of life.