I’ve been watching a lot of Late Night Television these past few days. Tonight I was watching the episode of Roseanne where Becky gets married and the aftermath thereafter.

It’s in the early 90’s, (Near the election, so 91 or 92). For a comedy, that show could be quite depressing. It had Dan lose his business, Becky moving out and getting married without help; both Dan and Roseanne out of work without any money coming in; bills were stacked up to the roof…

All in all, a pretty bleary outlook on life, but then the economy was doin’ pretty poor around that time.

It was a reflection on how a lot of people were living around that time. Paycheck to paycheck, insurmountable bills… just one bad thing after the other coming in and breaking down the human spirit.

I look at that, and how they pushed on and thrived, and I realize that my own mother did that for me too. No matter what was going on, she knew she had a responsibility to keep her children clothed and fed.

Sheer tenacity kept a lot of those people from giving up and calling it quits, which, to me, is a pretty damned amazing thing. The human spirit, (particularly in Statesmen) is a pretty powerful thing.

Our country has always been based on the idea that if you fight for something, you can achieve it. I’m getting pretty tired of people who make excuses for their situation. Bad shit happens, but that doesn’t mean you have a free pass to just give up hope. Maybe some of the old war veterans are right; maybe we haven’t had anything defining happen in our lives to give us the strong moral fiber that past generations, (like my mother,) had.

My friend is a postal employee. He’s insane about saving money, and he’s got, (roughly) $10k in investments. He’s been working for years, he has several clear cut goals in mind for what he’s going to do with that money in the coming years. He got that with hard work and careful planing.

He doesn’t complain about his station. He doesn’t complain about having to work, and he doesn’t have any aversions to working.

I’m wondering if my own outlook on work, (I’m fairly lazy) might have been tainted by my aunt. She didn’t work at all while I knew her, (my mother supported her for taking care of me and she dealt drugs for spare cash.) Having someone around all the time might have been a bad situation for me.

I don’t blame her, though. I make my decisions day-by-day and it’s up to me whether or not I change how I act/feel.

I start a new job soon, though. It’s going to require a hefty commitment from me. (At least two years of my time.)

Questioning myself and my own motives has been a problem of mine since before I can remember. I’m constantly wondering whether or not this is the right situation/career choice for me to get into. I also realize that, when I’m done, (if it is only 2 years,) I’ll be 24. If things go right, I’ll have a reserve of cash in savings of about $25k when I finish.

Half of that will be in a 401k program, which will actually have double whatever I’ve put into it. (Or so I’m told; the company says they’ll match whatever I put in up to about $1,000 dollars.) So in effect whenever I leave I’ll have roughly 35k in savings. At the age of 24, I think that’ll be a pretty good nest egg.

I think watching Roseanne and Dan on Late Night Television has actually helped catalyze me into serious action with my life. I’d originally been very depressed when I watched Late Night Television. Now, when I look at that show and draw the lines that correlate with my reality, I can see it as a catalyst for action.

Maybe others do too.