The cost of maintenance + notes on confidence
also my xmas tree! 🎄 or "holiday" tree! or whatever it's a tree!
I don’t think most physical goods are worth taking care of.
Especially the super huge kind that take years to pay off.
I don’t outright own a house or car.
I’m a leasing queen!
The thought of being responsible for fixing very expensive items of property is terrifying to me.
It’s wild to put that much effort into an external object that can be replaced, imo
I know some people love it.
I respect it.
I’m simply not one of those people.
But when it comes to my personal health and mental wellbeing…
THAT is the kind of maintenance work I’m willing to spend on.
I’ve never hesitated to throw large chunks of time at exercising or sports training.
I’ve never had a psychological problem spending money on those things either, even when I had very little of it.
There were times in grad school where I missed a tuition payment but made sure to pay my bodybuilding coach.
This was not very smart.
And no, I obviously don’t condone missing payments lol
I just mean to illustrate that the way we spend resources is very telling of where our personal values lie.
Physical movement, good food, and good coaches have always been worth more to me than most other tangible things.
Similarly, I want good teeth in my old age, so I floss them a lot.
I want my brain to be sharp for as long as possible, so make sure to read, write, create things and do puzzles every day.
My body is one of the VERY few things I’m willing to consistently invest in, because it’s the only things that I’m certain will be with me forever.
I HAVEN’T SHOWN YOU OUR CHRISTMAS TREE!!
Ugh…how rude of me.
Here are a couple pics from when we put it up last week.
And here’s the finished product once we got a cheap ass candy shaped tree skirt from Hobby Lobby and a few gifts up under there.
Did you notice our tree topper was a MARIO STAR??!!?? ⭐️
Our old one from last year was sort of lame.
So when Amazon showed me this bad boy a few days after we watched the new Mario movie, it kinda felt like fate.
But it was probably just our Alexa device spying on us and Jeff Bezos tracking my purchasing habits.
WHATEVER I JUST LIKE THE LITTLE STAR ITS FINE
Here are 2 quotes I wanna share from my recent re-read of “On Confidence” by Alain de Botton:
“At the heart of our underconfidence is a skewed picture of how dignified a normal person can be. We imagine that it might be possible, after a certain age, to place ourselves beyond mockery.”
Of course, that will never happen.
Also,
“There is a type of underconfidence that arises specifically when we grow too attached to our own dignity and become anxious around any situation that might seem to threaten it. We hold back from challenges in which there is any risk of ending up looking ridiculous – which comprises, of course, almost all the most interesting situations.”
Of course, we will always be ridiculous and look ridiculous…Fuck it.
That’s all today.
Hope your week is splendid ❤️
xoxo,
- AV
