Wax On Wax Off

Of course being a child of the 80's I saw The Karate Kid in the theater. How hot was Daniel Son!!! As we all know the ever wise Mr. Miyagi made Daniel Son do all of his grunt work. Wax the car, sand the deck, paint the fence. Well this is what I am musing about today. I have been spending most of my pathetic summer painting the fence. No this is not a metaphor..I have what feels like five million feet of white picket fence around my place.
Now has this taught me how to fend off local Cobra Kai??
No..but it has confirmed what I have known all along.
America is so darn obsessed with looking good.
If it is not our clothes or cars then it has to be our houses and yards. Really what gives? If we don't keep up with "The Jones's" then we are called white trash and of course who wants to be compared to Britney Spears. So I can say that my house right now looks fantastic, but what has been the trade off? Well we spent all of our summer vacation working on our place. Spent all of the vacation budget on paint and pickets for the fence. Our kids have totally gotten the shaft this summer Disneyland or paint the fence? They don't even get to kick the bullies butt's at the end of the summer to make all of the work worth it. No they just get to go back to school and have a lame essay about what they did last summer.
So please explain to me why making ourselves look good is better than relationships with family and friends?? Why do we work harder and longer to supposedly get ahead in life to just do things that take more away from life?
The "American Dream" while it is awesome with possibilities has turned us into a rather greedy bunch. I am thinking that while the fear of being called white trash looms..it might just be a compliment in disguise.