Watching news from all over the world has evoked this idea in me. Crises of all kinds are happening all over. Austerity measures in Europe have invited mass protest. And as a decidedly unresolved financial crisis in America lumbers yet towards another fallout, I am trying to see where my family fits in all of this. I also wonder if people are even considering this for themselves. Are they taking any steps for themselves? For the greater good? Or are they kicking against measures that would impinge on the luxury they have staked out? 

As an American, I feel two forces: one says, “You deserve to have your cake and eat it, too.” The other says, “Give your cake to someone who needs it.”

Living in Japan has afforded me the “luxury” of some major life changes that would be far more difficult in the U.S. For example, giving up a car in lieu of mass transit. Yet I’m in that process of asking myself if I should eat the proverbial cake, or give it away…or better yet, give it up.

More questions, less answers. Each step is movement towards that sense of “genkaku”…or a lifestyle of austerity.