Expensive Problems

This is a follow-up to an article I wrote about the misleading allure of material abundance.

Yesterday, I came across a news article talking about how condo owners at 432 Park Ave. in NYC are "suing the developers for $125 million in damages, citing multiple floods, faulty elevators, 'intolerable' noise caused by building sway, and an electrical explosion in June — the second in three years — that knocked out power to residents."

All the money in the world can't buy a problem-free life. 432 Park Ave. sits on "Billionaires Row." The people who can afford to live there are in the top 1% of the top 1%, yet the perfect homes they were promised still present headaches. You could pay $40 million for a penthouse jutting through the Manhattan skyline and still deal with maintenance issues.

When I read a story like this, I'm reminded how a life without complications doesn't exist and how grateful I am for my simple troubles. We can't prevent problems from arising, but we can control the story we tell ourselves about them when they do.