This is interesting (and I know we have commented on thrifting before), but I don’t really have that many shameful memories connected with shopping, etc. I remember LACK at home much more than anything else. But maybe I was kind of unconscious about style back then. I can’t really remember….

I think when we’re younger and less tied to the concrete — still in college — it’s easier to frame life worth living in terms of ideals and goals and fiery pronouncements and arguments.
Then we move out into the real world, and things like real jobs, real relationships and real bills and mortgages can take over. It’s easy to fall into a rut of sameness, to only care about mundane things.

In some way, there’s nothing wrong with that, as long as you occasionally get all fiery again.

But I know what you mean. I love my job, so it’s not so hard to put one foot in front of the other every day in that respect. But there is a sense in which I am doing just that, even so. I find myself asking, “Is this all there is?” It’s a process of lowering one’s life goals and becoming used to the idea of homogeneity and sameness. The good thing is that there can be pleasure in regularity and stability. It can also be quite stultifying, but I really see no moral alternative. There may be immoral alternatives, but let’s face it, you are not Paris Hilton and I am not…whoever the male equivalent of Paris Hilton would be.