Does the good life really needs to be expensive?

In times of financial crisis the thing is all about economising. Normally the first things which have to go are the so called superfluous things, or "luxury" - like eating bio food, going in museums, giving  presents, buying fresh flowers for your home, going to the hairdresser, inviting friends, giving a party and buying books. Which is a catastrophe in terms of economy, as the small businesses, your hairdresser, the bookshop and the bakery will have to close down for the lack of customers. If you stop buying the Belgium strawberries, f.e,  at a price of 8 Euros a batch and turn to the Spanish ones at 3.50 a batch, you know what will be the outcome: more planes in the sky for cheaper strawberries. Or no strawberries at all.

And it is a catastrophe in terms of health - more junk food, more waste and less socialising. Eating a cold pizza in front of the telly alone is not - at least my - a way of living the good life.

Now let's start to look at the good life from the other side.
 

Actually living the good life is a state of mind and has - ultimately - not really something to do with money. I always get on your nerves about beauty, but believe me, it is so important and helps in each and every aspect of our daily lives today.  

All of the things I spoke of, like going to the hairdresser or buying less bio food - all that is false economy, on the long run. If you do not feel well in your life, nobody else will make you feel well. If you take the wrong based decisions - nobody else will have the instrument to remedy those.

The good life is all about the things you cannot buy - OK, fair enough, having the money  at hand and not to have to think twice is making it much easier, but then, let's be honest, do we not have enough money?? I do not talk here of world poverty and the poor in our streets - they are not reading this blog, I suppose. But me and you, out there?

To live a good live is important, very much so. Why should you bother otherwise? And the good life depends mostly on your attitude, not on the Louis Vuitton Handbag.
 

The older I get the more I cherish the things money cannot buy: friends, time, health, beauty, laughter, good company, blue sky, fresh water, a good conversation, trees, a hot espresso in a street cafe in Munich, clean bedsheets, homemade confiture, my old discs of Bach and Abba, the same model of shoes for their comfort and a good beloved handbag, which has been perhaps very expensive but gets only better with wear and tear.
 

So, the good life being expensive is the one where you go to the Seychelles for the weekend or stay at the 9star Hotel  in London, buying washing powder for your clothes at Harrods and having your shirts ironed in Hongkong. All is possible. And if people want to do it, then it is their own choice and they are welcome to it. But  if that means that other mortals feel a permanent lack of possibilities, then I invite you all to have a good hard look and stop fidgeting about that nonsense.