Back to Reality

We returned to the real world yesterday, and fortunately the Minnesota weather is in the high 60’s, so we don’t have to deal too much weather depression at least. I’ll have lots to write about the Howard Zinn book I suppose, I’m three quarters of the way through that, but writing about it would just add to the normal post trip blues.

We live in a wonderful country where the combination of political and economic freedom allows tens of thousands of people to be out enjoying life on the blue Caribbean on any given week. At the turn of the century, the capability barely existed, and to the extent that it did, one had to actually be rich to make use of it. Mr. Zinn feels that we live in a horrible country, laboring under a horrible capitalist system, and the world is quite dark, except for the rays of sunshine presented by anarchists, socialists, and communists. He should go check out a cruise, the sun is shining there.

There is always an aspect of emotional letdown after returning from a great trip. The standard feeling for me seems to go back to being a kid when “Christmas is over”. There are lots of good intellectualizations about “being thankful for the memories”, “lucky to have been able to go”, and “now I should be refreshed and ready to take on the world”. All are intellectually true. When I figure out how to tell my emotions to lock in perfectly on rationality with no rebellion, I will be sure share the information on the blog!

I suppose I could improve my life by converting my childish emotion of “letdown” to some “justified envy” for the “filthy rich capitalists” that cruise their lives away on such ships. (There actually seem to be some, see http://residentialvessels.com/residential_ocean_liner_site.htm) That certainly can't be “fair”. I’m not much into fairness though, I much prefer opportunity! 

Some set of folks and businesses are out there making a way that one can “retire on a cruise ship”. Will they make it affordable, and will I be able to afford it someday? No way to know the answer to that, but I’d rather be thankful that the potential is out there to dream about than to just be disgusted that some folks have achieved what sounds like a fun way to live.