Have spent a significant part of this blue autumn thinking about costs.
I feel like we (and here I mean a collective 'we', specifically a Western/White/Post Gen X 'we', but I am sure it applies to more than that...) have become so detached from what things cost. If you care about having nice things, you need to pay for them.
If you want a good, healthy body, you have to be willing to work for it. You can't eat whatever you like, and you have to get regular exercise.
If you want a relationship to last, you have to be willing to humble yourself. Instead of looking out for your interests, you have to put others before yourself.
If you want your society to reflect something, you have to be willing to sacrifice to make that happen. Social change almost always comes with blood... reposting a picture-with-text message does less than nothing.
If you find something that is cheap, something that promises a magic fix, then you need to know that that cost is being cut somewhere. Somebody suffered during production, something is not being made correctly, somewhere down the line, something is being skipped. Every good thing in this world has its' costs, and we have reached a point where we are unwilling to pay them.
To quote "Once Upon a Time," which I have become a wee bit obessed with, "All magic comes with a price." When will our bill come due?
