One of the forces was the idea of “maintaining a lifestyle.” We also discussed how our consumeristic society is driven by “lifestyle” choices. My friend remarked that this urge to get the latest and greatest was like an addiction. He compared our society to a junkie who couldn’t live without the “gotta-have-it” stuck in our arm.

This man is a self-employed business owner employing American workers making American products with pride. He feels he’s facing a losing battle, as consumers driven by the need for cheap and cheaper demand their desires be satiated by an ever-expanding lineup of overseas merchandise.

We talked about keeping hold of work’s joy while being cuffed and kicked by those aspects which take the joy out of working. It’s not just self-employed people who struggle with this difficulty. It may be that a self-employed person has a different type of struggle, because every self-employed person I know began their work in part because of the sheer joy of doing the work itself.

There is an art to doing for oneself. Like all arts, this art is often vague and nebulous. But when one finds a way to be in touch with the artistry of doing for oneself, the joy of that doing makes the work nothing but fun no matter how hard it may be. But all working people must struggle with the monster of a spreadsheet showing profit and loss, of debts which must be paid, of the “cost of doing business” which translates to the price one must pay for being hard-headed enough to be in business for oneself.

Our conversation wound its way around all these topics. But over the course of that long, delightful evening of conversation, it struck me how often we talked about the pressures of “lifestyle.” One of us happened to mention how style changes with the wind, and how changing styles is what fuels the addictive need to have another version of the latest and greatest thingamabob.

It is interesting that we view the word lifestyle as simply a word without a clearcut meaning, when actually it is a compound word that would be better hyphenated to give a more accurate picture of what it represents. A “style of life” is by definition is a changing thing dictated by outside forces. These outside forces say they want us to be happy, when in truth they only want the money we are willing to pay for the ever-elusive promises of happiness.

In terms of what we should concentrate on, we would be far better to insert the hyphen, and then drop the remaining suffix. Living a rich life is much more easily achieved than living a rich life-style, for living a rich life costs nothing but time and viewpoint. The rich life I am talking about never goes out of style, but only richens with age and experience.

(Editor’s Note: Reach David Clark at dclark@outofthesky.com, or write him at P.O. Box 148, Cochran, Ga. 31014.).