Life is a Beach

On the beach, you swim  

 

Sometimes it is just that. I was with some friends at a beach down south. Apparently not many people are in beach mode right now, because it was pretty empty. We had all the waiters to ourselves, the kids owned the pool and the beach.
The few people that were there all left early, but we stayed on. The kitchen closed, the staff left, but it was lovely on the beach.
And as the sun set, we were practically on our own. It got so bad that the valet parking guys went looking for us; they wanted to go home but they still had our car keys in their pockets.

 

You run around

 

And we spoke about some of the perks of life here. Nobody washes his own car. No lawn to mow. Someone who cooks and cleans for you, home delivery for just about anything you can think of (including pharmaceuticals, Burger King and dry-cleaning), valet parking, nail bars, making doctor’s appointments for the next day instead of the next month, people tell will run after you when you forget your phone at the table in a café, friends that always have time, the weather, proximity of ski slopes, beaches, hospitals, airports and universities, and spontaneous dinners organized 24 hours in advance.

 

You dig a hole

 

Sure, there are drawbacks. It's a religiously segregated society, but so was Holland some 60 years ago, while religion has become a non-issue these days. One of the worst is probably the price at which it all comes. How social mobility  is basically non-existent here. The rich marry each other, and if you’re born poor, you stay poor. With beginning salaries of $800 for an AUB graduate, you’ll be 55 by the time you have finished paying off your study loan. The only way out of that economic loop is by going abroad. And that is what most of the young men are doing. Lack of leadership, and leadership with a vision that encompasses all its citizens , forces them out.

 

You bury your friends and give them boobies (and a belly button)

 

We all have to work hard. But heck, if you can make it here,  it’s like holiday 365 days a year. A friend explained why she wasn’t living in Holland. “I live here in my own hotel! Why would I go back?”

 

And so yes, sometimes, life is a beach.

 

And you play with the camera