Hurricane Irma began to pass through Sarasota, Florida around 10 p.m. on September 10, 2017.
While it wasn’t the full-strength storm many had predicted, it still possessed life-threatening qualities which most Floridians took very seriously.
In the immediate aftermath of the storm, with many basic necessities in modern-day life (electricity, A/C, Internet, gas) hard or impossible to come by, I’m reminded of just how fortunate and wonderful life is.
Indeed, this storm can teach us many important lessons.
Life And Health Matter More Than Money and Material Possessions
I spend a great deal of my time writing about, thinking about, and managing money and investments.
It’s a real passion of mine that I’m more than happy to share with the world whenever possible.
However, the absolute power of this storm – capable of snatching away life – reinforced the gratefulness I feel for being alive and healthy, which is already a pretty strong level of gratefulness in ordinary circumstances.
Life and health matter far more than money and material possessions.
That goes for those we care about as well as ourselves. What’s of supreme importance is our lives and the lives of those we care most about.
If I, for instance, all of the sudden contracted some form of cancer that required $400,000 of my own wealth to cure, I wouldn’t even think about paying the money. I’d rather be broke than dead.
And all I could think about when this storm was on the verge of hitting Florida was how glad I was to be alive, and how I so wished that no bodily harm would come to me or anyone else.
On the other hand, if all of my money disappeared overnight, this wouldn’t even begin to give me the same level of anxiety.
Likewise, when people decided to quickly flee Florida in search of safer pastures, they were forced to leave behind most of their material objects. Yet when these people are asked in the moment about how they’re feeling, all they can really think about is just making it out okay and living to see tomorrow. They know that things can be purchased once more, that homes can be rebuilt, that life matters far more than money.
It’s easy to get sucked into the grind of everyday life. It’s easy to be fixated on growing one’s wealth and independence.
But it truly is life itself that matters most.
It’s Easy To Take Modern-Day Luxuries For Granted
Electricity. The Internet. Gas. HVAC systems. Airports. Easy access to high-quality food that can be made for you in minutes.
So on and so forth.
I’ve said it before, but I wouldn’t trade places with John D. Rockefeller for a second. There is nobody born before 1900 that was living the kind of high-quality life that even a middle-class worker here in America enjoys in 2017.
I’d sooner trade my entire portfolio in and earn $11/hour than be reborn as Julius Caesar.
While many people continue to chase more wealth and stuff, the real answers to living a quality, healthy, and happy life are already all around us.
It’s easy to take these things for granted… until they’re nowhere to be found.
I’m typing this very article from a local grocery store that’s running on a generator. That’s because there’s no power across much of the state of Florida, including my neighborhood. I have no light. No access to the Internet. No way to cool my home (and it’s mighty hot). No way to refrigerate my food. No access to the bus system.
I feel helpless. Even though I’m relatively wealthy, I feel incredibly poor.
Money won’t cool my home or light my path forward in the face of an emergency like this. I’m eating boxed food and relying on a flashlight, in stifling heat, just like everyone else.
What’s really funny is that humanity lived like this for centuries. You couldn’t just call up your local utility to set up electricity back in 1625. You couldn’t make a call on your cell phone in 1770. You certainly couldn’t access the Internet in 1850. You couldn’t just fly or drive away in the face of a huge storm like this 1900.
These advancements in technology are really the crux of what makes us a happier, healthier, and more interconnected species that’s capable of living longer and doing far more than ever before. We should be tremendously grateful for this.
I’ve never felt more appreciative of the little things than I do at this very moment.
Conclusion
Massive catastrophes and the ensuing emergencies can teach us many valuable lessons. I’m only going over two for the sake of brevity today (especially since I’m a bit light on resources).
But the biggest lesson of all is that we should have this mindset turned on at all times.
It shouldn’t require a massive storm like this to remind us of just how fortunate we are to be alive and healthy, with access to the most amazing technology that’s ever been known to humankind.
Even those with modest means have opportunities to live amazing lives, relative to what was usually possible over the course of most of humanity’s existence.
If we’re keenly aware of this every day, we can live much happier and better lives.
What do you think? Any lessons you’ve learned from recent catastrophes?
Thanks for reading.
Image courtesy of: Vlado at FreeDigitalPhotos.net.
So happy you are ok, my friend. Brilliant post and perspective. Thanks for sharing!
Ian,
Thanks so much. We were so fortunate that it wasn’t as bad as it could have been. A lot of factors worked in our favor. 🙂
Just so much to be grateful for!
Appreciate all the support. Hope all is well with you and yours on the other side of the country.
Best regards.
Well said. Glad to hear that you are well. As myself, and everyone around the country has been watching Irma unfold we are, once again, reminded of how fragile life really is. “Life and health matter far more than money and material possessions.” So true!
DH,
Just happy to be safe and sound! 🙂
Cheers!
Jason –
I think, quite frankly, you put it best. Even with a $400K portfolio, you felt poor, as money couldn’t even fix the position you were in. Glad you are okay and life, matters.
-Lanny
Lanny,
Definitely. Money, and pretty much anything/everything it can buy, matters very little in an emergency like that. All you’re really thinking about is making sure you and the ones you’re closest to are okay. 🙂
Thanks for dropping by!
Best regards.
Jason, you are like anti-venom to the constant whining that I hear from many people about most things in life, especially politics. Most don’t know how spoiled they’ve become. Keep up the good work.
RII,
I guess I realize how spoiled I am? 🙂
I’m also very fortunate. Extremely. There are people all over the world that experience this (lack of electricity, no online access, hunger, etc.) on a regular basis.
Cheers!
I’m glad to hear that all is well with you, Jason. All material things are replaceable, although it gives discomfort not having them. Being alive and in good health is all that really matters. We should always remember that…
Take care,
Jos
Jos,
Indeed. Life and health is where it’s at. It’s a recurring theme in my writing, but a big storm (and the ensuing emergency) reinforces that message (and belief) in a big way!
Best wishes.
I live in south Florida and I know what exactly what you mean. While waiting for the storm to pass, I talked about the same thing to my parents and aunt. They have not thought of it like that before, but they agreed that we do live in a great time.
FV,
It’s hedonic adaptation. People adapt to their surroundings, then want more to get the same high. Human nature, I suppose. Events like this one (should) remind us of just how fortunate we are on an everyday basis. 🙂
Cheers!
Glad you okay Jason. Living on the other side of the world I was thinking of you every time Sarasota was mentioned on CNN. Where I live we have our fair share of power outages, and as frustrating as it is, I always try to remain grateful that it is not part of my permanent reality. I hope your services are restored quickly and you do not have to endure too much hardship in the interim.
Regards,
Dividend Tycoon
DT,
Absolutely. I mentioned this in another comment (and in other articles), but there are a lot of people all over the world that live our so-called “emergency” regularly. Access to food, electricity, and the Internet can be hard or impossible to come by. It’s really sad. And so whenever I feel like things are going tough, I try to keep that kind of stuff in mind. 🙂
Thanks for adding that!
Best regards.
Glad you are ok,
desidividend,
Thanks. Me, too! 🙂
Cheers.
Jason,
Good to hear that you’re alright. You are right, better alive and broke than dead. And the services will return in time – airports won’t take that long… as for the rest of it who knows.
Though I will beg to disagree on the Julius Caesar analogy. That dude was pretty bad ass.
– Gremlin
DG,
Indeed. We’ll be back to normal pretty soon, but I suppose this small dose of humility is nice once in a while (although the trigger for it isn’t).
As for JC, I’ll take a hard pass. While I’m a minimalist and a frugalist, I do quite enjoy my modern-day accouterments here in the US. Moreover, he had a pretty brutal death (as a lot of people did back then).
Cheers!
JC’s life did end brutally true, but his adventures were pretty rad – there’s a reason we still read on them.
Augustus Caesar – now that is probably the man you are looking for.
If you can’t tell I like history in general.
– Gremlin
Hi Jason, I’m glad you are safe. I was also fortunate to be doing and the family, minor losses around the house but thanking God to keep all of us safe. My heart and prayers for the less fortunate down in the Caribbean, the Keys and south west coast of the US. Take care. Omar
Omar,
Indeed. We’re very fortunate relative to a lot of people in the Caribbean. As always, if you must compare, it’s important to compare to those less fortunate than yourself. Many people lost a lot more than electricity, A/C, etc.
Glad you and your loved ones are okay!! 🙂
Best wishes.
Glad you turned out ok! These are the times that I am not envious of people living in Florida. Give it a couple months though when we have a blizzard here and the wind chill is -30!
MDS,
Yeah, storms are really unfortunate. But I actually faced far more brutal weather events up in Michigan than I have down here. Tornadoes, blizzards, ice storms, thunderstorms, etc. I think something like almost 1,000 people die per year in winter driving conditions, which is obviously way deadlier than hurricanes here in the US. That kind of stuff is annual, no less. This is the first time in all my time down here that I’ve seen a really bad storm like this. It’s otherwise been smooth sailing.
Nonetheless, I hope to never experience anything quite like this again. I’m actually moving to a place in a few weeks that is pretty solid in terms of weather, but it’s probably something very much non-weather related that will get you in the end.
Thanks for dropping by!
Cheers.
Glad you are okay Jason. Couldn’t agree more with your two takeaways about the storm. It is easy to let inconveniences or small problems balloon into major problems when things are great. But an event like Irma can remind you that those “problems” really are not that significant and that as you said, your health is all that matters.
Even though Cleveland was not impacted by the storms, I still learned a lesson that I was hinting at last paragraph. As we were racing to finish up painting a room in our house, racing to finish a work “Deadline” or just realizing general stress from doing too much at once, I was feeling down. Then, after watching what was happening in Houston and Florida from their respective storms, I realized how fortunate I was and that my current situation could be significantly worse. Millions of people felt what you were feeling, with their livelihood, memories, and lives thrown into chaos. If I didn’t finish painting a room, it was okay. If I had a shitty day at work because of unhappiness, guess what, it is okay. It may sound weird, but it made me appreciate what was a “problem” and what was really a problem that I should be upset about.
Wishing you the best as the pieces slowly get put back together.
Bert
Bert,
First world problems aren’t really problems at all once we’re able to put things in perspective. It’s unfortunate that it sometimes requires a major event for that perspective to shift a bit, but that’s why it’s so important to keep the right mindset with you at all times. If you go about life appreciative of who you are, what you have, and where you’re going, you’re less likely to be impacted or disappointed by most of the “non-problems” we experience on a daily basis in a developed country like the US.
Thanks for sharing that. Hope everything improves with the painting and work deadlines. 🙂
Best regards!