Affordable by Dr. Juan Harrison

I’ve been thinking about all the people who seem to be obsessed with coming to our country. I’ve lived overseas, and it wasn’t bad. Gas was expensive. I could find little places to eat that were reasonable. Still overall I missed the freedom I’d taken for granted. Life seemed a lot more restrictive there. They seemed to have a lot more government support with fewer choices.

What’s always been amazing and attractive about our country is the freedom of opportunity for anyone from anywhere who could get here and build a great life scratching and clawing. If you want an easy come easy go kinda life, this may not be the place for you. This way of life we have here is kinda a double-edged sword. The greatest life has the most opportunities. You can choose to do less and have less if you can live with that. You can get government benefits, but anyone who does can tell you that you’re not going to live the high life on that.

The challenge for most ordinary American citizens and visitors is to find happiness and satisfaction in whatever state they find themselves as Apostle Paul described himself in the Bible. It’s hard not to be jealous, envious, and resentful of others who have more, do more, and seem to live a comfortable life. Life is relative. If you accept your circumstances and feel satisfied with your life status, then you are one of the lucky ones. In our world of constant advertisements and people around us acquiring all kinds of goodies, it’s hard not to get a little jealous of what all they seem to be accumulating.

Earlier, in my neighborhood when times were a little better, seemed like every other house was getting renovated in some way. It made it tough for the other wives to not catch the bug. I tried to avoid those houses on the way through the neighborhood, but there were just too many of them. I don’t think I see so many during the economic downturn.

A lot of us can get insulated and isolated in our fairly comfortable lives in our normally stable neighborhoods. We’ve worked hard, been blessed, and have reaped the benefits that a lot of the rest of the world thinks will make their lives complete.

What a lot of Americans and I would like to remind those chasing or just trying to get a little piece of the dream is that the stuff we think will solve our problems can be a problem. Getting it is one thing; keeping it is another. If we work too much, we don’t have time to enjoy it. If we work too little, we won’t have to worry about having the first problem. Everything has a price. Hopefully you won’t find you paid too much for too little in the end.