En France - 5 years on......................

I’ve realised that while isolated from my own country, city, and even the people with the same interests as myself in general, I’ve actually been happier, and more content with both myself as a person, my situation, and the small amount of material items which I’ve been to able to re-gather during my new life thus far.

Just an example of this is my car.

I’ve always been an avid petrol-head to some degree, and purchased my first iconic car while still living in London at around the tender age of thirty-one. It was the model I'd always wanted, suited my budget, but also met the strict aesthetic requirements I require with most things.

Upon first driving, although 11 years old, she felt like a Rolls Royce (the thought of which often makes me chuckle to myself now), and despite the meagre sum paid, which incidentally, I’d taken out a five year loan for), I drove around happily, often feeling like lord of the manor, but in a good, not pretentious way.

Finding myself in a rural French village, cut off from civilisation as I knew it, I’d turned to the internet and found a forum for car enthusiasts like myself. There were many helpful members, a few of which went out of their way to help me when having to carry out budget repairs on my non-existent salary as an artist. However, as time went on I found many members frowned upon owners of the smaller cars of the same marque.

Perhaps I was naïve to be surprised by this ‘in-house’ snobbery, but over time it began to wear me down, until I felt my Rolls Royce was nothing more than a heap of scrap. I find it ironic that after deciding to stay away from the enthusiasts my car suddenly, once more, became a Rolls Royce again; we’re now once more happily reunited.

A long-winded example, maybe, but proof of how others can ultimately influence your psyche, making a content individual question their passions, and perhaps even make them feel inadequate, sometimes to the extent of them feeling the need to cater to satisfy the tastes, expectations and approval of others, in order to be accepted into the clique, etc, etc.

Reading this, you might consider buying into this philosophy a sign of a weak-mind. However, it actually happens within most peoples’ lives if you think about it. After all, isn’t that what makes us strive to obtain certain items of fashion, jewellery, cars and maybe even partners?

If you lived on a desert island, would a Cartier watch on your wrist make you a happier man? Would a brand new wardrobe of designer clothes mean anything?

I think you know the answer is a resounding NO!

In other words, these materialist items, for the most part, are obtained to impress others, to not only fit into society, but to be relished by it.