A Remedy Against Kingdoms of Ashes - Part 1

In 1985 the average new home price was $89,330.00, the very first .Com domain name,symbolics.com, was registered, the average yearly income was $22,100.00, MicrosoftCorporation released the first version of Windows, Windows 1.0., the average monthly rentwas $375.00, the average price for a new car was $9,005.00, gas was $1.09 per gallon, a movie ticket was $2.75, a US Postage stamp was 22 cents, compact discs were introduced to American consumers, and Jolt Cola was launched to a ravenous populace addicted to MTV and all things excessive. Jolt Cola’s marketing stratagem focused entirely on the beverage's caffeine content, proclaiming: "All the sugar and twice the caffeine." A decade later, in 1995 PepsiCo launched Josta, the very first energy drink introduced by a major US beverage company.Fast forward to 2010, the average cost of a house is $220,000, your grandmother owns herown .com and broadcasts footage of her ‘rap dancing’ exercise class on YouTube, the average cost of a new car is $27,958, without Microsoft the world would stop functioning, and both Goldman Sachs and Mintel predict that the US energy drink market will hit $10 billion samolians!?Apparently, we desire to be indefatigable.But why?Why on earth would billions be spent in order to consume ingredients that would give aStarbucks barista a ‘caffeine on steroids’ nightmare?While I am sure there are many reasons:

• Watching the entire Lord of the Rings Trilogy with bonus footage in one sitting
• Cramming for a Final exam from a book you haven’t cracked open all semester
• Working 72 hours straight in order to raise money for laser removal of a tattoo that reads ‘Kick Me If I’m Not Smiling!’

I’m only going to focus on one; contentment and the lack thereof.Ezra Boggs is a regular contributor to The Paradox blog.