Buy Or Learn

So, is every service worth paying for also worth learning to do yourself?
In an ideal world, yes.

What’s an ideal world?
One where reality allows enough time to do everything you want to do, freely, without cost.

What’s the sad reality of life in the United States for a white, college-educated male of 33 in the year 2007?
I feel slightly handcuffed.

I spend so much time earning the money to pay people, creditors, companies and the government for the things we need that I find very little time to learn the skills it might take to end the need to call for help in the first place.

If I could save time in a bottle, here are some of the things I’d rather learn than buy:

• I’d love to learn how to build a 17 foot canoe from scratch, with wood, bark and pine tar.
• I’d love to learn the process and technique for beautifully painting the interior of a 2100 square foot home.
• I’d love to learn how to replace the brakes (shoes, pads, rotors and all) on my car, my wife’s car and every car we’ll ever own.
• I’d love to learn how to re-code my own website, to make it work and look the exact way my mind and heart would expect.
• I’d love to learn enough to be able to repair the essential utilities in our new home: water, heat, electricity. A man should know how to do this.
• I’d love to learn enough to drive our business to be more successful in every way, for myself, my partner and our employees and contractors.
• I’d love to learn how to keep completely accurate accounting, prepare complete and accurate tax forms and satisfy every request the IRS and the State of Oregon makes of our corporation.
• I’d love to learn what it would take to run my entire life without the need for expensive public services, foreign fossil fuels, the consumption of animal products, the production of goods in overseas factories, the corruption of politics, the excess waste of the packaging of food products, the dark business of pharmaceuticals and the pollution of automobiles. There are ways to live in avoidance of all things negative towards other people and the planet, right?
• I’d love to learn about the polar regions, the last (sort of) unspoiled areas on Earth, through extensive, first-hand research.
• I’d love to create my own entertainment network, free of advertising, with my friends and brothers, that we could distribute via satellite, radio and Internet to share with other friends and families.
• I’d love to learn how to communicate with my friends, family and business contacts, without the expensive convenience of cellular and iPhone technology.
• I’d love to learn how to live comfortably as a successful man, husband and partner, without the debilitating effects of loans and credit cards.
• I’d love to learn how to gain wealth effectively through investing for success, all by myself.
• I’d love to learn the discipline it takes to eat nutritious meals every day, and and strength it takes to exercise enough to lose weight and live healthier.

This is a short, incomplete list of impossibilities. So for now, I will reluctantly buy and continue to learn a little at a time.