Lucky Us

Just look around you. We have just about everything a person could ask for. Our own homes to live in, our own cars to drive, closets full of clothes and shoes, all manner of entertainment, a dinner menu unmatched by any other era in the history of the world.

We have our very own private little castles.

Warmed in winter, cooled in summer, these havens from the rest of the world - owned or rented - are loaded with the niceties of modern civilization. Electricity, lights, running water, flush toilets, microwave ovens. The list is long.

We have personal transportation undreamed of by previous generations.

Our forefathers walked. Or - if they were lucky - had a carriage or wagon. Whatever it was, it was out in the weather, hot or cold, rain or shine. The smell of horse droppings and urine was everywhere, inescapable. Imagine the flies. Transportation was slow, it took days to make a trip we today make in minutes.

We have entire rooms in which to store our mountains of clothes.

They're called closets. Go look in yours... There are clothes in there you haven't worn in years: wrong color, wrong style, or just don't fit right anymore. Your closet is a safe haven for your clothes far better than what millions of people around the world have to live in.

Entertainment. What more could you possibly want?

Big screen TV's with DVD players, bringing you - in the privacy of your living room - thousands and thousands of movies and documentaries created by the finest entertainers on earth. Incredible stereo systems that faithfully reproduce the music of any artist on the planet. Computers capable of reaching anywhere on earth for information, communication or entertainment. Numberless video games in every genre imaginable.

We don't have to grow our own food.

We just jump into our air-conditioned private vehicle and drive to the nearest supermarket where foodstuffs from around the world are neatly laid out for our selection, all safe, all healthy, most ready-to-eat with little or no preparation. Yes, there are exceptions to this, but they are few and far between. Our food is safer and more plentiful than in any time before... Ever.

Think about it:

We don't have to go outside to a hole in the ground to bucket out our water, water that would be full of unwanted particles, contaminants and microbes.

We don't have to go potty outside in a smelly little structure that's full of flies in summer and ice cold in winter.

We don't have to make our own clothes.

We don't have to walk anywhere, that "anywhere" being anyplace we may want to go on planet earth.

We don't spend all of our daylight hours growing and preparing our food.

And until recently, most of us only had to work five days a week - evenings and weekends off - to get all this.

We are the generation that is benefiting from the efforts and work of those who came before us. Our parents wanted a better life for us, and they did what was needed to give us that. There were days my Mom and Dad didn't eat, but us kids never knew it... they made certain we never went hungry.

And yet... So many bitch and complain. They want even more... Of everything. Astounding.

How about the generations to come? Will they benefit from all this prosperity? Will it last? Or are there just too many people on planet earth now, all competing for fewer and fewer resources?

From what I can see, the life style we ordinary folks - those who created and are considered members of the Western Civilization - are enjoying today a fabulous lifestyle that cannot last much longer. No way. There are signs everywhere that the whole thing is about to collapse.

So enjoy what you can today. Tomorrow is not looking good, not for us, not for our progeny, not for anyone.

Christians will drop to their knees and pray. Muslims will go kill for Allah while hoping for their 72 virgins in paradise. Tree huggers will ask Gaia to protect them and the helpless little creatures of the forest.

None of it will change a thing. Bad times are coming, and only the truly prepared will survive.

Like I've said before, I was hoping to have cashed out before the bottom vanishes from under us all. But dammit, it's looking like I'll be around to watch the main show, because the previews are almost over.