I stumbled over a pretty fun website for a series of organized music festivals called The Garden’s of Babylon (link).
A pretty cool idea promoting freedom, spirituality, togetherness, peace, love and all that good stuff in a weekend venue of music, dress-up, meditation and festivities. Going through the website, I found a section with personal stories posted by participants I read one of them.
A Forever Kind of Love Story (link) – how wonderful! How incredible! A couple of people found each other at a music festival, fell in love, bought a Mercedes truck, converted it into a hippie camper and now are traveling around with their three children exploring Europe. “A sense of pure freedom,” who would not want just exactly that?
An inspiration to us all which begs a question of how one can afford such a life adventure, the story did not explain that. I decided to contact the Monastery outfit via Facebook messenger. And here is the copy of my interaction.
Just a few minutes after my message, a reply comes:
The response I received is a wealth of material that could be explored in many blogs:
- Why are you people so aggressive if you preach peace/love/freedom and understanding?
- Traveling to Burning Man sounds cool – but is it really a life-accomplishment worth mentioning?
- ‘After the Amsterdam dance event there “even” was a couple expecting a baby.’ I bet after that event there potentially were many couples expecting …
But I will disregard the low hanging fruit of controversy and instead explore the topic of trust-fund babies. Why the concept of a trust-fund baby has such a negative connotation? Someone born by chance into a position of priveladge has an incredible opportunity to live a positive and colorful life. There is no reason to paint a picture of a spoiled middle-aged child-woman, screaming at her trust manager because an annual distribution of a million dollars is simply not enough to live off.
What about the good examples such as Dirk or Joan?
Dirk went to college and earned two master degrees in geology and meteorology. Both degrees paid for in other ways than simply drawing from the fund. He is smart about his finances and works to earn a living and to support his family. Dirk has a wife and four children and lives a very normal, middle-class lifestyle. He does not have to work but he chooses to do so.
Joan earned an undergraduate degree in business then decided to become a Disneyland princess. Sounds supper easy but actually it is a real job with very stringent requirements: https://www.wikihow.com/Work-as-a-Princess-at-Disney-World-or-Disneyland
After that she auditioned and became a Radio City Rockette once again a pretty stringent occupation that does not pay well. Now, Joan is married to a diplomat and follows him to his international posts. This trust-fund baby is living her life to its fullest potential because of the freedoms granted her by the trust-fund.
In summary people who take the concept or phrase “trust-fund baby” as a negative are probably jealous of someone else’s good fortune and such a jealousy in my assessment is a pretty unattractive trait. I say kudos to those who have and use their trust wisely!
My turn to respond and to end this scrimmage
It is important to remember that no one chooses the circumstances of their birth. It’s one of the cards that they are dealt and they must live their life to the fullest regardless of if that card was an Ace or a 4. There is no denying that the one of holds the ace will have the potential of an easier journey but its impossible to use just that one card to judge their whole life. One must also consider the choices they made and the other cards they hold before passing judgement. Afterall, a 4 can still be a part of a Straight Flush and an A may only produce a High Card.