A Roof And Four Walls
- Marc Lear
- Mar 26, 2020
- 2 min read
A roof and four walls, we call it home and we take great pleasure knowing that at the end of a long day it will welcome us in to relax, have dinner and unwind with a book or a glass of wine. But how often do we press pause on our hectic lives to appreciate the fact that we have a home, no matter if it’s a shabby studio apartment with worn out wall to wall carpets, which the stingy landlord refuses to replace, or a mansion, seated on the hills, overlooking the city.
It’s no wonder that many people have a strong desire to own a home. The most important utility a home provides is safety and protection against the elements of nature, like rain, wind and sun, as well as protection from other animals and human beings who might be interested in stealing our food, or our old stamp collection.
Most countries have strict trespassing rules, giving a house owner or tenant the legal right to protect their property from anyone who enters it without their permission. This is a big deal and something that we shouldn’t take lightly as it legitimizes our sense of security and privacy within the confines of our home. I can only imagine that among the many challenges a homeless person has to face, the lack of a safe and secure place to sleep at night must be the hardest and is often a trigger to mental health issues.
In the past, we used to live in much smaller places, easily accommodating in a 2 bedroom house an entire family plus a dog. But with economic growth came the ever growing desire for more, so we’ve given each kid their own bedroom, we added a living room, family room, guest room (for hosting the annoying in laws), dining room, game room, 3 bathrooms, home office, gym room, laundry room, and of course a garage, large enough to fit two cars and a small boat.
But is that really necessary? If the main purpose of a home is to provide shelter and security why do so many people take mortgages well above their means to buy places they can’t afford and put themselves under terrible financial risk and stress? Isn’t it the absolute opposite of being secure? It appears that at some point in the not-too-distant history we lost the plot and were led to believe that just a roof and four walls are simply not enough. Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with a villa with a swimming pool and a tennis court in the backyard, if you can truly afford one, but for the majority of us, regular people, it’s important to remember that what makes a home is not the number of toilets it has but the fact that it’s our own secure and private place.
So tonight, as you crawl into the comfort of your bed, take a look around and above you and say thank you home, I love you just the way you are, a roof and four walls.
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