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| Page: 2 That the rest of the country has its priorities screwed up comes to me as no major surprise. But that New Yorkers have to follow this movement of "quality of life" is what I don’t get. We’re looking at a society that has become obsessed with health, political correctness, "purity," but most importantly a misunderstood and misinformed meaning of the word "quality." May I suggest it is really "quantity" and not "quality" what Americans are becoming obsessed with. Allow me to quote Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary: Quality \Qual"i*ty\, n.; pl. Qualities. [F. qualit['e], L. qualitas, fr. qualis how constituted, as; akin to E. which. See Which.] 1. The condition of being of such and such a sort as distinguished from others; nature or character relatively considered, as of goods; character; sort; rank. Nothing here about mass, or accommodate to popular belief. Much to the contrary, the definition says "distinguished from others." Remember New York, when we were less concerned with "fitting in" and more concerned with "being unique?" Exactly how long do we want to live for? And exactly what for? Do we live to live as many years as we possibly can? Or do we live to enjoy life as much as we can while we’re alive?
I’ll take the latter any time. Enjoying life is a different thing to different people, but if I may say, New York had, until a few years ago, taken joy of life to an artistic level. The joy of being alive, of enjoying oneself, enriching oneself, satisfying oneself, giving of oneself, taking oneself to another level; as Iggy Pop would put it, the lust for life. Others, it would appear, find joy of life in trading the lust of their youthful years for the joy of living to be 100 and watch their great grandchildren go to college from a wheel chair. Now there’s quality for ya! Sure, Mr. health-concern. You’ll put off your smoking habit, you won’t have that drink, you might not even get laid tonight, and you’ll be the first one at the gym in the morning. And you know what? You’ll do that for the rest of your life; just so you can add 10 or 15 years to your resume. And during those 10 or 15 years, you’ll be producing nothing, eating into your (and my) grandchildren’s social benefits, and congratulating yourself every morning for waking up yet one more day. Call me crazy, but I’d rather cash in my chips today, when I can really live. On my own two feet. With excitement, joy, energy, and passion. Being productive and knowing that one day, I’m going to die one very happy man. Be it 40 years from now, or be it this very evening. So all you quantity-driven types, live your quantity, and let us live our quality. Just don’t impose your pathetic habits, or lack of them, on us. Or if you do so, please do it on the other side of the Hudson.
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