Today, I really can't think of to many examples of popular media where freedom is emphasised. Then again, I really don't consume a lot of pop culture. Most of the media I do consume comes from the things I look up on youtube. In the past, I was exposed to listening to Pandora in my office before everyone started listening to their own music with earbuds in place.
I do recall hearing DT's (from the Black Brigade), most hated song.
"Say something I'm giving up on you"
Other songs on today's hits aren't much better. There is a song that is about marrying a woman despite all of her flaws.
"Marry that girl. I'll marry her anyway."
There was one song about Bruno Mars feeling bad after a breakup. I think the song was named Locked out of Heaven.
The last song I can remember was a love song that almost sounded like a worship song.
"All of me loves all of you. All your curves and imperfections. When I lose I'm winning."
I'm really glad we don't use the Ipod very much in the office.
Maybe only 20% of the time, I would hear a song that was okay. Finally, I heard one song called Counting Stars by One Republic.
I'm not a fan of One Republic and I don't know any other song by One Republic but the song Counting Stars sounds like a song that emphasises freedom. I've heard that the song itself is about the band deciding to take risks and be more experimental with their music instead of just pumping out the same prepackaged staple that will be more likely to earn money.
There is the lyric that gets repeated that says the following.
"Instead of counting money we'll be counting stars."
Each time I hear this, I am reminded of what we are doing here. Our day jobs most likely isn't what we want to do with our lives. Our jobs are just a tool used to gain resources to pay our bills. Once we have enough money saved up, we can put these tools down and pursue the things that we really want out of life. It feels like we load ourselves into a cannon and blast ourselves out into space.
The only way to stop counting money is to accumulate enough of it. Once we have all the money we need, we don't need to accumulate anymore. We will be free.
And with freedom comes greatness. Our different passions will be there. And we can spend as much time as we want pursuing those things.
Have you calculated exactly how much you need to be free? This is important because if we do not have a number in our minds we may remain needless captives who hold the keys to freedom in our hands all along.
ReplyDeleteFor most people it is less than we think.
There are a couple of approaches and estimates I've thought about. If I took my yearly living expenses and multiplied it by 60, I'd need $480,000 to retire today. As I keep getting new data and my remaining life decreases, I can get a more accurate number. I am very lucky to have a very low cost of living.
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