THE SIMPLE LIFE
I want off this Ferris wheel!
Remember The Simple Life, the television show starring Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie?
The premise of the show was to drop two wealthy socialites into situations where they would live like “real” people and allow the audience to watch their exploits. How ridiculous was that premise! The show became fodder for every curmudgeonly old person to claim that members of the next generation were a bunch of total idiots, and the show was a cautionary tale for all of us who have teenagers at home.
It certainly put fear into me! But it didn’t come from judging how shallow and self-centered they were. Watching how two socialites, who had all the benefits of money, power, access to education, and the means to fulfill any whim, could fail so miserably at a “regular” life led me to question how my kids would be able to survive.
When it wasn’t heartbreaking, it was funny to watch Paris and Nicole wearing polyester uniforms and serving fast food, or donning dungarees and boots to muck out a cow stall—poor unsuspecting customers and bewildered cow! How was it possible they didn’t know how to do anything?
Placing all the blame on the parents may not have been fair, but for me, I began to worry. And I’m talking about the real fear that I was about to send my kids out into the world, and I had failed to teach them anything!
I can remember one rushed and panicked conversation when I was the one rushing and panicking. I was testing my son, asking him if he had the toolbox, the cookbook, and the repair manual I had bought him. He calmly replied, “I can just hire someone to do that stuff.”
He wasn’t worried, so why was I? I eventually got over my fear. My kids have been out of the house for many years, and both are successful and talented in many ways. Now when we talk, we don’t exchange stories about things we’ve failed at, but about things we want to do—but don’t have the time.
They are simple things, like taking a lunch break rather than eating vending machine food at our desks. Or reading a novel for fun. Or taking the dog to the park for a walk. It’s funny how that has happened, isn’t it? We have more technology, gadgets, and hacks to help us than ever before, yet everyone is feeling rushed, ragged, and exhausted.
You could blame it on COVID … and the worldwide pandemic surely had an effect. Maybe we are all trying to make up for lost time, trying to rekindle our passions and purpose in life. Add to that my fear of loneliness now that the kids have moved out and a pretty serious case of the “Blahs” that has been hard to shake, and I see this is something that technology can’t fix.
In fact, just like dropping socialites into situations and watching them fail, we have dropped ourselves onto this Ferris wheel and are beating ourselves up for wanting to get off. I don’t think we have to accept this as the new normal. There is nothing normal about it!
Maybe we can learn something from that silly TV show, after all. There is something we can do for ourselves.
We can slow down, and make time for the simple life.
