Zen Pencils by Gavin Aung Than for October 14, 2016

What if a nice, comfortable, average life is what you desired? Wife, three kids, home in the suburbs, 9 to 5 job, grandchildren, vacations each summer. Roof over your head, food in your belly, love of a good spouse, retired at 65 on a decent income adequate for your needs, grow old together, hand-in-hand. Do you realize how many people on this planet CRAVE such a life? Dream of it?

@hawgowar, such Clinton-voters are part of the problem, reinforcing the political elite’s sense of entitlement and privilege, but making it that much worse for everyone else. It’s not all about our own comfort. From time to time, the blood of patriots must be shed to water the tree of liberty.

Changing just one of these things will make you slightly above average – at least in your own mind….

Average is in the eye of the beholder. If you don’t try for your dream, it will always be out of reach. On the other hand, there are people who do amazing things in their small corner of the world, but seem very average.

this artist needs some new themes, his same ones are getting tiresome

Pretty average advice

We should strive for a society, like Lake Woebegon, where “all of the children are ABOVE average”. Keillor was, of course, being facetious when he wrote that; but since our country ranks 35th among developed nations in math skills, there are a lot our fellow citizens who believe that having everyone above average is possible.

One of the better ones, and the capitalists’ wage slaves are all over it. 1&2: question everything. 3: take an interdisciplinary major so you will know enough about everything that you can learn the rest in your new job. 4: avoid office work if possible, stay off organization charts 5: Live somewhere as a citizens of that country, not in a golden ghetto there 6: Save to pay for things rather than borrow (house might be an exception) 7: if you do 5, the language will come with it, even if it is another dialect of English, the differences will be educational 8: old Arab proverb: three things for a successful life: write a book (to preserve your thoughts) plant a tree (to preserve the planet) have a son (to preserve the family name, daughters can serve also) 9: always have a highly portable business, it is a great insurance against the blacklists 10: society will decide that 11: avoid hoops and boxes. Do this and you will never be rich, but will survive – but society will be richer because of you.

“Here lies an unremarkably average man.”.Not “person”, but “man”? What an unremarkably average view of the world.

Cue up the famed Joe Walsh tune “Ordinary Average Guy” as well as “Life of Illusion”.

Most people might live that way and be content. Their power may lie in how they do their work, their dedication to the job and to family. The world wouldn’t be without the mythical statistical average person.

I usually like “Zen” but I don’t agree with this one. Having a boring middle class life is becoming more and more of a challenge over the past couple decades. Seriously, who works at the same company all their life and retires with a gold watch anymore?