At birth we are dependent, utterly. As children, the trend continues. If you need a coat, someone buys it for you. If the roof leaks, someone else takes care of that. Other people put out your fires.
As we become teenagers, if our parents are lucky, we have begun the transition to independent. Independent is defined loosely as not needing to call someone every time something happens because you can deal with it yourself. You put out your own fires.
At some point after we become independent, we start getting good at things, amassing resources and knowledge, and most importantly, experience. Without realizing it, we slip from independent to depended upon. This is when life gets hard. You look back at how put upon you felt during the earlier phases and realize what a selfish bastard you were. All your time and resources are spent dealing with other people's shit to the point that you can barely maintain your own independence. The people using your time and resources never say thank you. Every time there is a fire, people call you to come put it out.
The people depending on you finally get a life. Independent again...only this time you aren't too stupid to appreciate it. Plus, by some miracle, the dependents left you with enough to survive on. You retire, and work no longer depends on you. You have time. There are no more fires because you aren't an idiot who starts them any more. This is the phase you want to maximize, because what comes next ain't pretty.
The wearing depends phase. You've fallen and you can't get up, and you can't cook without starting a fire.
Bookmarks