choose your own adventure

Remember those books? I used to half a few of them as a kid. I enjoyed reading them, but found that I often ended up with the same ending. I'd have to intentionally make decisions that I wouldn't normally make in order for the "adventure" to change. But it was fiction, and there weren't any real ramifications, so why not?

The other day, I was reminded of those books a little. I saw a photo essay online titled "American Vagabonds". The photos hovered (mostly) around a group of punkish bohemian youth living in abandoned buildings and railcars. They were dirty, wore tattered clothing, and carried sacks of vegetables on their backs as they traveled. It's hard to believe that anyone would choose to live that way. But the bleeding heart liberal edge would say that these are outcasts of society and that their fate was served to them unjustly. For some, this could be true. But when I see them smoking cigarettes, drinking booze, and weather high fashion clothing like studded belts and designer tees, I have to wonder if they didn't actually choose this lifestyle. After all, you can add up the cost of booze and tobacco addictions and it would set you pretty close to sharing rent in a cheap part of town.

I had a friend who also felt as thought he had been continually served with bad luck, when in fact most of his bad luck was due to bad choices on his part. For example, when he let his credit card spending get out of hand, he headed straight for bankruptcy, without even considering any kind of credit counseling or debt relief. He's doing okay now, although he's bitten off more of a mortgage than he could really afford and now he's feeling the pinch each month. He's gone from expensive-hobby and bad-decision poor to house-poor.

So I must conclude that, aside from the occasional job, medical, or lawsuit-based financial tragedy, we are still in fact choosing our own adventures. It's all about how we choose to spend our money (or not).