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Luxury


 Today’s word is luxury. From Meriam Webster:



 luxury, noun

1 : a condition of abundance or great ease and comfort: sumptuous environment lived in luxury

2 a : something adding to pleasure or comfort but not absolutely necessary

one of life's luxuries

b : an indulgence in something that provides pleasure, satisfaction, or ease

had the luxury of rejecting a handful of job offers

Let’s play a little game. What sorts of things do you consider to be luxuries? 

Now think about your childhood. What kinds of things did your parents consider to be luxuries? I think I grew up believing that luxury was synonymous with “that’s too expensive.” Some examples: shrimp cocktail, private school, souvenir programs at the circus, vacations to warm island locations, haircuts in salons, long distance telephone calls.

On the other hand, I did experience certain things that would be considered luxuries to other families: new school clothes, occasional meals in “sit down” restaurants, piano lessons, staying at home during summer vacation, regular medical care.

Sometimes luxury can mean a condition of great ease or comfort. Sometimes it just means all the things you can’t afford.

Our community has been strongly impacted by the attack on public service, science, and medical jobs. (As an aside, I don’t believe for one minute that public service, science, and medicine are luxuries or things we just can’t afford.) When significant chunks of people lose their jobs, it cannot help but change financial priorities.

What was was affordable may now be a luxury.

As we watch our national and local economy being destroyed from the top down, I think it’s important to consider all the things we have in Howard County that we care about. How many of them will quickly become luxuries - - things we just can’t afford? 

Some have to do with consumers goods and experiences, leisure time activities, educational choices. Others have to do with initiatives and causes we support that make Howard County a better place. All of these things depend on a large enough per centage of people having more than enough. I’m not talking about “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous.” I’m talking about enough to do a little extra, enough to donate to local causes, enough to share time and talents.

What are the things in Howard County that we will strive to preserve even as we see our own situations become more precarious? And how are we going to do that?


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