Earning a living and living a life

I'm at a coffee house with my Jo and Tan and we're having a long awaited catchup session.

It's two o'clock and Tan says he has to leave at four. He needs to go through a company's profile before he goes over to audit them tomorrow.

"But it's a Sunday man," I say. "At least take the day off."

"What do you think I'm doing now?"

I shrug. "I don't want to sound like a hippie, but there's much more to life than work."

"Well that's easy for you to say. You don't have bills to pay."

"Hey, no one forced you to buy that fancy car. No one asked you to go around swiping your card—and while we're at it, have you even used that treadmill since you bought it?"

"Yeah yeah, you're Mr. Savvy, right? Prepaid lines and ten year old car. Hey look at me! I don't have shit and I have so much time to enjoy life!"

"Chill dude. I just wanted you to have a day off. It's your life. But personal attacks like that, that's not cool, man."

"Yeah, you have nothing to pay for, you can bum all you want, sipping coffee on the weekends. Some of us have to make a living you know. Just ask Jo."

"Hey," Jo says. "Leave me out of this."

I'm not sure why Tan got his knickers in a twist, but I'm not proud of being the one who triggered it. Tan's a typical auditor. He works before the sun rises and comes home after the sun sets. He never gets to see daylight other than from the windows of his clients' offices, and his weekends are spent poring over new portfolios assigned to him. My paycheque might be chump change to him, but he seems to be more shackled than ever.

Tan ends up leaving at two thirty, and Jo has the rest of the day off, so we head off to do some grocery shopping.

"Is it wrong to have no responsibilities?" I ask.

"Just let him be. He must've been stressed."

"Do you think I'm a bum?"

"You're fine, Stu. Don't worry about it."

"Am I a bum just because I choose not to have debt?"

"Shh. Don't think so much."

Moments later, as I'm filling the trolley with tomatoes and carrots, Jo asks, "What would be your last thoughts before you die?"

"Morbid question, isn't it?"

"Yeah, but when you guys were arguing earlier, I started thinking if money really is worth losing your life over."

"I guess we all need to find that balance between earning a living and living a life.”

  

“My last thoughts would probably be spent thinking if I’ve loved enough, and if I’ll regret the things I’ve done, or the ones I did not,” Jo says with a distant stare in her eyes. “And also my cat.”

“You cat lovers are crazy, you know that?”

Jo hits me on the arm. I smile. Lately, I’ve started to have a different relationship with time, and even though I’m only human and I tend to falter when it comes to living life, I always try to enjoy the present, because that’s the only thing that’s real. Connecting with people is one of the simple moments I enjoy, and I stop to bask in the moment.

A lot of people might be ahead of me in terms of money and possessions, and I don’t know why but I still feel like I’m the lucky one.