Why are all of us rich westerners becoming more and more miserable? I have a theory that it is due to having too much personal space.
This morning I saw a couple double-dinking on a pushie and they were having a million times more fun than any one of us perched alone in our comfortable expensive automobiles. It got me thinking about Asia and how commonplace it is to see a whole family aboard a 50cc Honda. Usually they look pretty damn happy even though there is no built-in TV screen to hypnotize the children.
We have become the "ew, don't touch me" culture and we are getting worse. We live in empty McMansions. Our beds are nothing like they were in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and for lots of people I know public transport is torture.
I got on a bus in Fiji and instead of everyone being gloomy, listening to their iPods and flashing pissed off psycho looks so no one sits in the empty seat next to them, it was a real party atmosphere. The bus was pretty packed and Fijians being Fijians they were pressed up pretty close together. It was fun, just like the school bus was fun (except for that time I got smacked in the head by that 10th grader from WRB*)
Perhaps if we just stopped spending our whole lives trying to avoid other people we would be way happier. Seriously I should be telling this theory to you at a pub rather than writing it on my laptop in my lonely living room. Let's meet up. I'll catch the bus there.
*WRB stood for West Ryde Boys. It's not a very imaginative name is it? As for NME (the Naughty Menace Establishment) someone I know can be very proud.
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