What do you worry about?

Last night Richard asked me “what do you worry about?”

I worry most about some things are going too fast and others too slow. I worry that the medical breakthrough would not come fast enough for us baby boomers to benefit. I worry about the IT world is going too fast so that our privacy will be jeopardized. I worry that the economy in rich nations will stagnate and people will blame it on the emerging nations.

Being a Chinese in Canada 20 years ago compared to now is totally different. 20 years ago, the reaction of people in Canada to a Chinese was “Oh, poor you, you need help and we are here to offer the help to you as long as you do not ask too much”. Today, the reaction is “You guys make junky stuff; you take jobs away from us; if anything bad happens to you, you deserve it”.

I do believe that the rich nations have a duty to help the poor nations. We are all connected and related. We may have to sacrifice our luxurious life style for a few years in order to bring the rest of the world up to a similar level. From the selfish point of view, if the rest of the world is lagging too far behind us, we cannot ascend to the next level.

Right now these are the things I worry about, all in all, though, I am optimistic about the future and living my life trying to achieve the highest good in Epicureanism, a tranquility derived by the absence of agitation and the highest positive pleasure, a society of good friends. I think these two qualities can also be interpreted as faith and love.

Another way to describe the same lifestyle is by Jerome K Jerome:

Let your boat of life be light, packed with only what you need - a homely home and simple pleasure, one or two friends, worth the name, someone to love and someone to love you, a cat, a dog and a pipe or two, enough to eat and enough to wear and a little more than enough to drink; for thirst is a dangerous thing. You will find the boat easier to pull then, and it will not be so liable to upset, and it will not matter so much if it does upset; good, plain merchandise will stand water.