On Golden Opportunities

Lexus has a commercial out that was bothering me enough that I ranted to my husband about it. He suggested that perhaps some of that ranting might make for a good blog posting… thus these lines.

The commercial talks about all of your missed opportunities – the race you never ran, the ship around the world you never took, the novel you never wrote. And then it poses the one opportunity that you shouldn't miss. The opportunity to – da-dum! – buy a car.

I am appalled by this message, not just because I still hope to do some of those things, but because I can't honestly believe that anyone could propose that a car purchase could be the antidote to all the missed opportunities of life.

Is a car really going to make it OK that you never ran that race or wrote that book? What about all the contributions to the world that you could have made? Really, a CAR is supposed to make up for everything you've missed?? (This was about the point in my rant that my husband suggested a blog post.)

It's tough times in America (not a time when many people can afford, ahem, a Lexus) but I don't think we've gotten to the point where we can be persuaded to sell out on our dreams in exchange for expensive products. Have we?

Please write below – what dreams do you still intend to fulfill? What opportunities will you seize?

Let's show those car company what a true opportunity really means.

<See the video below. Don't, you know, get so entranced that you give up on all you are committed to and go buy a Lexus instead.>

2 Replies to "On Golden Opportunities"

  • Sarah Rivka Schechter
    August 16, 2011 (10:43 pm)

    Your rant is something that needs to be said over and over again to counteract the emptiness and waste of today’s consumption-driven society. I’m so glad I visited Jewcology today! 🙂

    I don’t drive at all. My husband does, but we don’t plan on getting a car anytime soon. Thank God we both have legs in good working order and a stroller for Rena (our daughter, fast approaching two years old). If we have to go somewhere far or don’t feel like walking, we are blessed to live in a community with good public transportation, Seattle. We did move from Manhattan half a year ago, where we subwayed it everywhere we didn’t want to walk. Seattle is a big biking community, and my father in law who lives here even gave us some used bikes. Some people here even commute to work by bike. But anyway, I’m not interested in spending anyone’s hard-earned money to purchase or maintain a machine that would damage the environment and would deprive me of my exercise and Rena’s and my enjoyment of nature. Rena lives to pick dandilions as I push her along in her stroller.

    This is not meant to be a judgment against those who do have and use cars. My in-laws pick us up in their car on many a Sunday to take us somewhere fun. I’ve taxied it many times, and I grew up with my parents driving me everywhere in their car (one car only) because public transportation in Cincinnati where I grew up is not so good and I was not able to walk or bike very far. I’m commenting on my current situation.

    I certainly would not pay for a car before fulfilling my dreams. I have my heart set on attending a Permaculture Design course in Israel called Eco-Israel. It seems totally impractical considering my life situation but I’ve been obsessed with it ever since I heard about it. I also want to become a holistic health coach through the Institute for Integrative Nutrition. Slightly more practical but I would still have to come up with the money for it. I do want to make Aliyah. I want to attend the cooking school in Jerusalem, and I may want to get a master’s degree, perhaps in an environmental field, perhaps an MBA, perhaps something else. (I’ve heard there are green MBA programs.) I want to write and publish books. I want to write songs, take voice lessons, and make CDs. I want to get really good at yoga or bellydancing or kickboxing and become a teacher of one or all of those things. I want to have my own permaculture farm, a restaurant, a social network website for holistic health coaches and current and potential clients, and on and on….Most important right now, I need a job. I have an interview tomorrow with a local bilingual green living magazine called Eco-Logica Magazine. I’ll hopefully be able to save up most money I earn because my husband has a thing about wanting to be the one to support our family. I intend to fulfill as many of my dreams as I can in my lifetime. Already some goals I had have been checked off (graduated from high school, got into a good college, graduated from that college, got married, had a child) and there’s no reason to stop there! I refuse to let materialism get in the way of fulfilling my dreams.

  • David Arfa
    October 5, 2011 (9:40 pm)

    “Why a thneed is something everyone needs!” The Onceler-

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