Use It or Lose It

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Do you remember freedom?

Or have you become so accustomed to the "new normal" of Covid-19 fear and high gas prices that you now settle for watching TV while scarfing down that bowl of leftover candy you have because cowering parents wouldn't allow their children to "Trick or Treat" on Halloween?

Okay, I know.

The Halloween candy actually ran out last week, so now you're eating Pringles that you got on sale at ten for $10, helping make up for meat prices being twice as high as they were a year ago.

But those potato chip tubes are empty, too.

Fortunately, you dodged a bullet by cancelling your health club membership and avoiding any activities that might attract a crowd, so at least you don't have to worry about getting Covid-19, though it may bother you a bit to find that most fatalities are people who had co-morbidities including obesity or old age.

Let's face it: none of us are getting younger, and there's no pause button that allows you to play out your life later when it's safer.

You may be staying home for your health, but you better get back to the "old normal" before you kill yourself with your "safe" life choices.

Do your realize what a unique time in history this is?

Until about 100 years ago, most people didn't travel more than 50 miles from home in their lifetimes.  Eisenhower's interstate highway system made cross country road trips easier in the 1950s, and then air became available to average folks in the 1960s.  Caribbean cruises started about the time people now on Medicare were listening to the newly-released "Beatles '65" album.

Cruising became normalized by "The Love Boat" TV show in the 1970's.

Sure, a few privileged people traveled before that, including Mark Twain who cruised to Europe, Hawaii and of course on the Mississippi River, but the average Joe and Nancy were just trying to make ends meet, rarely going further than church on Sunday, which was their only day off.

Even royalty didn't have access to the travel opportunities available to the average American.

You know the expression.

"Use it or lose it."

What will you do with your freedom?

Wes