source: themazatlanpost.com/2020/07/06/major-brands-declare-bankruptcy-worldwide

Time is Up!

Bye Bye Vanity Fair

Some recent news:

1. Victoria’s Secret declared bankruptcy.
2. Zara closed 1,200 stores.
3. La Chapelle withdrew 4391 stores.
4. Chanel is discontinued.
5. Hermes is discontinued.
6. Patek Philippe discontinued production.
7. Rolex discontinued production.
8. Nike is planning a second stage of layoffs.
9. Gold’s gym filed for bankruptcy.
10. Mall of America stopped paying mortgage payments.

What is common to all these famous brands? As many people noticed, they are all symbols of luxury or “I am rich”. If you are looking for a new watch, here is the current list of the world’s top 10 most expensive watches, studded with hundreds of diamonds:

1. Graff Diamonds Hallucination — $55 million
2. Graff Diamonds The Fascination — $40 million
3. Breguet №160 — $30 million
4. Chopard 201-Carat Watch — $25 million
5. Patek Philippe Supercomplication — $24 million
6. Jacob & Co. Billionaire Watch — $18 million
7. Paul Newman’s Rolex Daytona — $17.8 million
8. Patek Philippe Ref. 1518 — $11.1 million
9. Vacheron Constantin 57260 — $8 million
10. Hublot Big Bang — $5 million

Below is the full definition of luxury in dictionary.com:

1. A material object, service, etc., conducive to sumptuous living, usually a delicacy, elegance, or refinement of living rather than a necessity: Gold cufflinks were a luxury not allowed for in his budget.
2. Free or habitual indulgence in or enjoyment of comforts and pleasures in addition to those necessary for a reasonable standard of well-being: a life of luxury on the French Riviera.
3. A means of ministering to such indulgence or enjoyment: this travel plan gives you the luxury of choosing which countries you can visit.
4. A pleasure out of the ordinary allowed to oneself: the luxury of an extra piece of the cake.
5. A foolish or worthless form of self-indulgence: the luxury of self-pity.

I didn’t spare on words or dollars because I wanted to make exactly this point. How much space this redundant stuff was occupying in our shops, our homes, our thoughts. It wasn’t making us happy. More often it was diverting us away from the things that really matter. Luckily the corona virus is here to help us become free of it. Good riddance!

Growing Up

image: unsplash

Mankind is changing, evolving. We no longer crave the same silly things as before. But like a toddler whose favorite toys were taken from him, our immediate instinct is to cry, blame bad mom, wish the toys would come back. At the same time we also hear a more mature voice inside, telling us what we are going through is not only necessary, it is even to our benefit. It is time to let go.

I believe this is just the beginning. In a few years EVERYTHING will change. We are in the beginning of a revolution. We have to digest it, accept it, go along with it. For this we need to know what is happening, what we are morphing into, what is our role in this. Just like children develop by imagining and playing with some grownup role models (look mom! I am a nurse, a firefighter, a pilot), so we should start depicting, and playing with, our future form. This means growing up and learning. So let’s happily say bye bye to our old toys, and let’s get ready for the much more exciting and rewarding new game of life!