My life is good. It took me a long time to truly remember this. Think back to when we were kids. We didn’t know we were poor, we didn’t know we were eating no-name. We thought our toys were the best, even though it was just a piece of wood decorated with old scrap electronic parts to look vaguely like a lazer rifle. We wore our clothes to dust. We didnt fear…. anything. With the exception of that belt if we were bad. We saw that belt a lot too. Most of us deserved it and knew it, others not so much. We went over to friends places on foot. Walked across the city to go to an arcade because we found 5 bucks. We loved it. We learned to fear through our media. We learned that there is a horrible element in this world. We learned that other people are bad. We learned that risk is everywhere. Dont make new friends cause the nicest people could be con artists. Dont trust our food because corperations are poisoning us. Dont drink the tap water because the gov’t is medicating us. Dont buy bottled water because they lie about their ‘process’. Hate this or that race because ‘look what this one or that one did over here’ its a boiling pot of oil over a lava pit and we are all balancing tentatively on the edge. Then i pulled my face out of my phone. Looked around. Life is good. Nobody in my neighborhood has been blown up or mowed down by terrorists, no military patrolling my street. There are no earthquakes or floods or hurricanes or tsunamis. I walked all the way to the store and didnt get jumped or killed. I dont have to boobytrap my doors and windows. I dont need a ferarri…. its the same as my ford, just prettier and faster. I dont need a mansion or an acreage, but a little more room would be nice. My TV isnt 3D, but camping is fully immersive interactive software that was installed at birth. I dont have an ATV, but my bicycle has gotten me through a lot. I dont get to be picky about what i eat, but our cupboards aren’t bare. I like my life and all its shortcomings, i have what i need, who i need, a place to enjoy it, and a lifetime of memories to recall or create. Why? Because i stopped comparing me to you, or anyone else, long enough to see that life is good.

By, Brian Johnson