【轻阅读，看世界】What are the things that do not matter in life?

铅笔英语，每晚睡前故事。

看世界人生百态，品人间真情冷暖。

多一种语言，多一个纬度，多一段故事。

I’m in my 60’s now and my answer may surprise you. Here are my top-of-mind responses in no particular order…

As I experience life, what doesn’t matter much is where you went to college and what degrees you got. If you got as far as you wanted to, that’s great. If your education got you into a career or into jobs you like, then great. That’s mostly what it’s good for, in my view. But our degrees and education don’t affect who we are as people and how we experience and how much like ourselves...unless we judge ourselves by our accomplishments.

Being rich doesn’t matter. If you have enough money, enough for your needs plus some more for things and experiences you want, you don’t need much more in order to be happy.

Television doesn’t matter. I watch quite a bit of it and I do find it entertaining but beyond that it’s not important.

The type of work you do. All that matters is that you do what appeals to you, what brings you satisfaction and fulfillment. That could be being a garbage man or anything else.

How far you get on your career path. As long as you’re doing something you enjoy your title is of little consequence.

How you look and what you weigh. Unless you’re facing health issues for your weight or you’re intentionally not taking care of yourself because you want to drive yourself to an early grave, you look good enough to be out in the world and meeting people. My weight (190 lbs, which means I have a more rounded stomach than I’d like) and your weight is fine. We’re too hung up on appearances for our own good, both our own and others. Let’s let it go and start to enjoy and appreciate ourselves and others even more. I will if you will!

Celebrities’ lives. I mean, who cares?? If we do, that suggests to me that we’re not feeling fulfilled in our own lives.

The kind of car you drive. (And maybe if you even have a car. Yeah, it’s not convenient taking public transportation and it’s really limiting when we don’t have our own transportation. But is it that important? I’m open to being mistaken about this one.)

How old you are. Age is just a number. While aging does bring physical limitations, we don’t have to make it a limitation. Let’s stay engaged in life! Let’s keep going, trying new things, looking for new relationships, learning new things, continuing to work if we want, etc. As long as we’re living, lets make the most of it!

Is this wisdom or stupidity? I don’t know for sure but each of these feels right to me. Please consider this food for thought, if nothing else.