Musings on the Coast

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Tired Of Politics

By Michael Ray
By Michael Ray

I’ve written about politics in several columns and I am tired of it. Politics is only “real” in the short and medium terms, and subject to radical collateral damage that can be really ugly.

Only family lasts forever. Or if you are from a peculiar culture, make that the tribe.

I have witnessed both.   Actually I have experienced both.   First, I have a big, rambunctious immediate family, and we all are part of my greater tribe of siblings.

We are of Kansas heritage. That is where are parents were born and raised, and that is our value system. My generation was lucky enough to have been born in Newport Beach before it exploded. I am lucky enough to have lived in a better place for three decades now, Laguna Beach. Nothing against Newport, I grew up in old CdM on the level part of Seaward Road in Corona Highlands and behind our house was the vast, and then empty Irvine Ranch.

It was a kid’s paradise. Hiking, hunting snakes, chasing cows, trying to catch guppies in the stream, playing all over it, and sometimes camping out because we could.

Mind you, I definitely am not making complaints against what exists here now in Laguna. It is paradise today. I have traveled a lot and never have I come across a community as magnificent, laid back and as surprisingly intense as Laguna. It is a phenomenon.

Of course, it has to do with its beauty. It is Marilyn Monroe in her prime, yet for us mere mortals, forever. But it is more than that. It is an attitude only locals can describe. It is tribal.

There was a recent article in the Wall Street Journal (yes, I read that one, too) entitled, “Can Money Buy You Happiness?”   The article said there had been several psychological research projects about that subject in the last many years, and they seem to have a similar conclusion. Above about $250,000 of annual income, more money to buy “things” does not buy happiness. A second home, another car, an airplane, a big yacht…none of that is lasting. It buys happiness only for a short while.

What lasts are memories. People with a lot of experiences are the happiest. But most “normally” rich people shy away from that. They look at a big trip-type-thing, which costs say $30,000, and they mentally compare it with the down payment on a new BMW. Then they think, “the trip thing will last only last three weeks, but the BMW will last for years,” and they pass on the experience in favor of the car.

Poor fools.

The message of this column is go for the experience. Go with your kids or parents or grandkids or siblings and just be the crazy person you really are.

You are part of the Laguna tribe and your family deserves the craziest experience you can devise.

So go forth. And enjoy. Politics still will be here when you return.

 

Michael Ray grew up in Corona del Mar and now lives in Laguna Beach.  He makes a living as a real estate entrepreneur and is involved in many non-profits.

 

 

 

 

 

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