“Illusion is an anodyne, bred by the gap between wish and reality”

A mutual friend introduced be to a woman who was interested in meeting me. So my friend invited me for coffee and a chat.

Basically the woman had financial problems and for some reason my friend said that I had financial solutions.

This lady was really interested in how much we were saving and how big our savings were, but she was in disbelief about our expenses as I outlined them.

I told her they were low because we grew vegetables.

She said “yeah but you can’t live on vegetables”.

She challenged the fact that I didn’t identify any mobile phone expenses.

I told her that we are happy with phones that are still plugged into houses.

She said “Christ you can’t live without a mobile phone nowadays”.

I suggested at the very least she could cut her bill down form $220 per month. That helpful suggestion wasn’t received in the manner it was intended.

I told her that we preferred to ride bicycles to driving a car.

“I’ve got kids!” she said. So I told her that we did too and we reckon they liked biking more than being passengers in a car.

She implied I was irresponsible. You know putting my kids at risk.

About now I switched the conversation to another topic because I could see she wanted magical solutions that didn’t involve any changes or any compromises.

This lady needs to win the lottery, get a way better job or get divorced for a richer man, but I’ve got a feeling that even if she did we could still be having this conversation.