It's not so bad, if you think about it. Buying an Aston Martin for commuting is akin to using the backwash from a Boeing 747 to clear the leaves from your driveway. If you care about efficiency (and not all car owners do), there are certain cars that classify as sensible and others that... don't.
Of course, the same computer nerds that drive their smart cars around town while laughing at the hot rod crowd are the same ones who have supercomputers in their hall closets. We all have our areas of self-indulgence and weakness.
Scratch that, actually. I might be misidentifying passion as self-indulgence. It's important to be passionate about something. Your work. Your family. Your faith. Your hobbies. If you're passionate about something, you invest the time needed to become an expert, you become good at telling others about it, and--most importantly--the passion can spill over into other areas of your life (unless you're obsessed--another topic altogether--and not altogether a bad thing, depending on the subject). ;-)
Okay, so, there's a financial side to all of this. The sensible person inside each of you is shooting holes through my thesis with reckless abandon. "But what about the cost, huh? I'm passionate about space shuttles, buddy."
The other side of my thesis is that if you're passionate about something, you'll find a way to do it responsibly. Maybe you budget for your hobby, or wait until later in life when you can afford it, or find a way to make it your career, or channel your energies into a more realistic alternative (I'm passionate about trains. 1:8 scale model trains).
Life is hard. Find something you're passionate about it. Learn about it. Do it. Help other people find their passion. Don't live vicariously through your children. They'll find their own things they're passionate about. Live passionately yourself, as though this were your last day to live.
For the Christian, there's a list of things we must be passionate about. And--I'd suggest--if you aren't passionate about those things, you better find out why, because there's nothing as empty as Christians who aren't passionate about what they believe. But--assuming you have your spiritual house in order, make sure your passion spills out and fills every cranny of who you are as a person. Be genuine, real, and exciting.
(At this point, some of you are convinced that I'm trying to find an excuse to buy an Aston Martin DBS. And you would be totally right... if I didn't think Ferrari's were better.)
Don't worry. I don't think I'll ever actually buy one. I'd hate to have to sell any of the supercomputers in my closet. :-P
Until next time,
- Daniel
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