You’re not sure if you want the Lego set? Surely, you want the Lego set. Some might suggest that there’s no point or purpose in Lego and it’s a waste of money? Okay, let’s run with that it is. One issue with that stance is that inevitably one must (through any logic or sense of any kind) conclude that anything we buy (other than that which facilitates the continuation of life) is a waste of money and is lacking in point or purpose. I’ve looked at all that (repeat revisits over several years) and it always seems to end at a dead end other than the branch road off to the question addressed soonish below. Focussing on the money aspect for now however, when we’re talking Lego, if nothing else (and of course it is also a ‘something else’ of largely exquisite marvellousness) it’s a more secure financial investment than one could make in many other money-based opportunities (assuming one were ever prepared to let any sets go by selling them once they’ve been discontinued by Lego’s genius sales strategy. So simple and yet…). All that said, surely that at least partially removes the money deliberations.
Which segues us (with a little steering, I admit) into the Lego is ‘pointless’ vantage point. Let me ask a question? What isn’t pointless? Really. I mean it. In terms of anything we buy, what isn’t pointless? I can see potential for arguments backing useful items that might make life easier because they perform a function or a kind of service to mean our vegetables are sliced more precisely (or whatever the gadget is and whatever it does). Fine, but even then, does that not equate to the fact that the point has become to make life easier? Um. Which leads me to check something else. Is it easy? Life. Is it easy? And is a gadget to help thinly slice the courgette for the ratatouille going to rectify the fact that it is not easy, will not be easy and can never be easy? And that’s before we even get to the additional consideration of whether we’re genuinely aiming for an ‘easy life’. If we are, have we fully lost the plot?
Let’s pretend, for a moment, that this was the aim. How could we make it easy? I guess we could try and make ourselves unconnected to people so there is no chance of losing them via whatever route (death, illness, fall-outs etc)? That would solve one ‘not easy’ aspect of life but does somewhat present another of how to manage the isolation and loneliness side of things. Hmmmm. So, surely that’s a ‘stuck’ thing where neither side is particularly easy.
Working less and having more fun is the aim and would make it all easier? Okay, so when the job has gone and there isn’t the money and the fun can’t be had, one finds one needs one to have the other, meaning that is unlikely to outplay as we’d hoped…unless one ventures into that which is probably illegal and ill-advised as activity to fund pre-mentioned ‘fun’. But what about if one just had enough money to have the fun without the job? Fine, but is the fun as much fun if one hasn’t had to earn it in some way? Is not the dopamine hit from it lesser if it just landed with no effort? Only you can answer for you, but I reckon that is a potential outcome.
You want to work less and do less? I wonder how that would affect one’s thinking and mindset and life attitude and aims and focus on a day-to-day basis. It’s probably fine, even enjoyable, for a day, or a week, or even a month…maybe even for longer…but at some point, the novelty of that has the potential to wear off. With life like that, before you know it, the most exciting thing that’s happening is that one needs to de-slug the pathway in the back garden so it’s possible to wheel the bins out for the weekly collection without hearing the squelch of the many slugs’ demise.
Which brings us full circle (with more forceful steering, also admitted). Get the Lego. Or the clothing. Or the plant. Or the book. These things, maybe, are a little aid to life. Do I mean it is wise to go mad and spend what you don’t have buying all that is (when viewed objectively) pointless and of no longstanding value or worth? Of course not. Everything lives in finely tuned balance, does it not? I am however suggesting that a Lego purchasing moment, or the acquisition of some clothes, or the accepting of a gift from someone, or the sourcing of the perfect courgette slicing gadget, or whatever the ‘thing’ is, might bring a little benefit to us, and that maybe we don't need to overly deliberate such matters. These things (along with the actual of purchasing them) are tiny aids to help us navigate that which is life and can be used as one of many strategies needed along the way. At times. Maybe.
Got to go, I need to shuffle what is in my online Lego basket and wish list…
