Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)
What is the American dream? Dictionary.app says it is:
The American dream is the traditional social ideals of the U.S., such as equality, democracy, and material prosperity.
Yeah? So, the next question is, what is the Japanese dream?
The Public Has Spoken. Sort of.
- ME: What is the Japanese dream?
- HER (Nao): Japanese dream? There isn’t one!
- ME: There isn’t?
- HER: We don’t have a dream….
- ME: Come on, there has to be something.
- HER: Well….ummmm. Oh! Stability! We want stability! We don’t like change.
- NARRATOR: Nao confers with her brother and his wife.
- HER: Yeah, stability. For most men they want to work for the same company until retirement which is what wives expect from their husbands.
- ME: That’s it? Don’t you want anything? [The ugly American displaying his inability to grok that the Japanese are not slaves to consumerism like oil-hungry SUV-driving Americans.] /me suppresses a bout of laughter.
- HER: A HOUSE! We want to own our own homes!
- NARRATOR: Brother and sister-in-law nod vigorously in agreement.
- ME: That’s it?
- HER: Yeah. We are totally afraid of change and don’t take chances. Not like Americans. You guys always have dreams and try to do things. [Dejected.] We don’t have dreams. Nothing, yo.
NOTE: Wife said the exact same thing, but I didn’t believe her. Sorry, honey.
To iMorpheus my biggest fan.
So- owning a home… isn’t that the American dream too?
I think the American Dream is to get ass deep in debt and find a way to not have to pay it off. As I currently live in the country with the largest debt per person- I think it is attainable. German’s don;t even own the land they live on- they lease it from the state for centuries at a time. If their cars are more than 5 years old- they have to pay incredible taxes on them- so they always buy new ones… oh and the dollar equivalent of a gallon of gas these days i 9-10 dollars.
My dream? Not screw up my kids, have my husband in one piece to make it to AF retirement, and laugh a little every day. Maybe buy a house someday. A military wife can’t expect much.