What Is Important?

It seems that the times are altering our definitions of what is important. It seems to me at least that family, friends, health, food and shelter, security, all begin to loom large as very important things. Seems like big ticket material possessions are going to mean less to us, unless they contribute to these other, more important things. Things like "status symbols" and useless electronic gadgets, oversized homes, oversized automobiles, etc., will mean less and less and in fact will detract from these, more important things. I struggled throughout the 90's watching people I knew take dream vacations, purchase dream homes, fancy autos, did all the things I wanted to do but was frankly too "chicken-shit" of a large amount of debt required to do those things. Now it seems that all of that has fallen apart and means almost nothing now, in a difficult economy with shrinking opportunities. Even career aspirations have to be tamed, there simply isn't "room at the top" any more. It is impossible to be too cautious now.