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There is no such thing as a free lunch or anything else

March 1, 2012 Thursday, Day 1 ~ 30-Day Blogging Challenge prompt is OPINION PIECE - When is Free Better? When Not?

After 65 years of life, I realize the wisdom of the saying “There is no such thing as a free lunch”. Actually, there is no such thing as a “free” anything. Even freedom itself has a price. I didn’t understand this when I was under 20.

It was between the years of 20 and 60 that the truth slowing dawned on me. It took me a long time to understand that if I got something “free” there was an unseen price or a sacrifice. Sometimes the free “item” requires a sacrifice of time, sometimes money, and sometimes freedom itself.

Thinking back across the years, I attempt to remember the precise moment when I begin to realize that if it’s free then the price might be more then what I want to pay. I can’t remember a specific incident because I think this lesson resulted from an accumulation of wisdom over the years.

I know that as a child, growing up in Oklahoma, I received everything “free”. My parents and grandparents gave me anything I wanted. At the time, I didn’t realize it was “if they could afford it”. I did know that sometimes I had to wait until my birthday or Christmas to receive the item I wanted, but I didn’t understand why.

Thinking back, I realize that Mom and my Grandparents must have make some sacrifices to give my siblings and me both the necessities of life and our wants. It was only after I reached the age of maturity that I began to think about the cost of things; however, I only considered the monetary cost. It took me a while to realize that some free items require sacrifices that are not monetary.

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