67. THINGS MOUND UP

People spend much of life busily moving toward goals of less work, less burden, fewer problems, and more peace, happiness, and freedom. We assume that school, raising a family, and succeeding in a career will bring the reward of leisure, fun, and a more carefree life.
 
What we do not take into account in this appraisal is that nothing goes away completely. Everything we do in life, every contact we make, every choice, mounds up. The junk in the garage and closets starts to take on a life of its own like some alien creature pupating and swelling uncontrollably. These bulging incubators in our homes are a metaphor for what is happening on a grander scale in the rest of our lives.
 
The more life activity, the more the mound grows. Social contact creates personal responsibilities and history to consider. If there are children, they are a concern for life. Children compound into grandchildren to worry about. At work there is the burden of fellow workers or employees. Money in excess of that necessary for day to day needs, and the goodies purchased with it, become a chore to manage. Worse yet is consumer debt because, of course, we had to have all the trinkets pronto.
 
All life choices queue up behind us like railroad cars as the years march on. They aren't easily disengaged or disposed of. Almost everything is retained—at least in the mind and conscience. Over time the length of the train becomes an enormous burden to pull. The dreamed of devil-may-care golden years can turn into worrisome and obligating toil as steam is lost chugging along life's track. Or we may find ourselves accelerating toward some as yet unknown calamity. The momentum and mass of all the railcars we've stacked behind push us down a hill no matter how hard we pull on the brakes.
 
This realization leads some to decide to drop out entirely, move into the woods, build a hut, and live off the land. Most of us have envied Thoreau's life at one time or another.1 But if we were to move to Walden Pond we would replace modern living problems with others—like what to eat today, to name just one not-too-little problem. No matter where we are, life is about challenge and that cannot be avoided.
 
If we understand that every life choice comes back to give pleasure, regret, or responsibility, we can make life choices more wisely. That will mean not permitting ourselves to be swept along in the commercial stream and always putting conscience first. By so doing we can have the smallest mound possible to manage, fewer regrets, and time to work on being the better people we are meant to become.

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