People Describe Which Things Are Luxuries In One Country But Common In Another
We take a lot of things for granted in our lives. Look at where many of our readers live, after all. America is the land of freedom, comfort, and all services provided to us by the click of a smartphone possibly all of us are using to read this.
However, when you look at the state of certain countries, even those considered to live in "poverty" stateside have it much better than some in third-world countries. It's all a matter of perspective, and sometimes a luxury in one country can be considered uninspiring in another.
Reddit user, HanzeeeeDent, wanted to know how our countries differ when they asked:
"What is a luxury in one country, but a common item in another?"
Food is the easiest way to notice the discrepancies between the nations. What might be a dish of high-class value in one country can be seen as street food in another.
The Right Kind Of Fruit
"Japanese seem to be amazed at how abundant melons are outside if japan. It’s like they’re a luxury over there"
KentuckyFriedEel
"They have auctions where they'll pay thousands of dollars for the most perfect looking melons over there. They give them as gifts and display the melon for people to look at"
Monicabrewinskie
"I live in a city where Japanese executives and their families come to live for a year or so as part of their corporate culture. It is funny AS HELL to see them the first time in the grocery store. Whole cart full of melons. Hilarious."
The_Patriot
Quick! Hurry, Millennials!
"Avocados. I went to Belize and they grow naturally and just saw a pile of like 50 avocados just rotting on the ground because there was just way more than anyone’s ever going to eat. It was crazy."
Old-Research3367
"When I was living in Peru it was basically all fruit in this manner… mangos, pomegranate, passion fruit, citrus, you name it, thered be an old lady on a street corner with a pile of them hocking them for basically nothing."
"I live in LA now and what’s blown my mind is the amount of fruit trees used as decorative landscaping that just let them drop and toss them while the same stuff sells for $ at the store… passionfruit is something like $10 per lb. Meanwhile my neighbors have the vines as decoration on their side wall and just let them roll into the street"
JoefromOhio
Bag It Up!
"Soda cans. Here in the US are cheap af, but in my country they are a luxury. We buy usually a 2 liter bottles and we have to make it last."
Mariuxpunk007
"I lived in northwest Africa for a time, as well as Thailand. If you wanted a soda, you got a bag with a straw. Cans or small bottles were almost non-existent."
Shroom4Yoshi
"Philippines too. But only in very small stores. Reason is that they do not want to give away the bottle. For example, if you buy beer in a small store, you pay a small deposit. Then when you return the bottle, they give you the money back. For recycling."
sinus
Sounds Like A Good Time
"poppy seeds, pork, and alcohol"
"come to Slovakia, it is all legal, cheap and everywhere here"
"we also have legal foraging in any forrest that has no fence and is not part of national park....so year round practically free mushrooms, bear garlic, various berries, rosehip, herbs and tree fruit (for free fruit trees location there is an app)"
"leather products are not that expensive,too....actually, eating lamb is a luxury, owning sheepskin rug is quite common"
applesandoranges990
Societies are built on what we expect from one another, along with the expectations we carry for the people around us. When those assumptions are shifted, that's when you see the real differences in our home countries.
Call The Butler To Help The Maid
"Domestic helps."
Lonlolsm99
"What is domestic helps?"
Zenty3
"In many countries normal people have drivers, maids and other people working for their families. It isn’t a sign of wealth. It is more of a sign of people working for next to nothing."
NoChatting2day
Get Them Good Learnin'!
"Foreign Language classes before high school"
KhajitCaravan
"It is for a lot of people. Countries like France and Japan have their kids speaking at least 2 languages by the time they get to high-school. In America, most of us don't get exposed to a foreign language until high-school and that's why most people don't remember or even use their other language after graduating. It's taught to us at the worst time possible. My sister is the only person I've known [I went to three high-school so I've know a few people] who is "painfully fluent" In Spanish that she learned in high-school."
KhajitCaravan
We'll Never See Eye-to-Eye On Anything
"Let's just take the US and Russia for comparison, because it's most close to home for me."
"Ice making double-door fridges - pretty common in the US. Definitely a luxury in Russia."
"A second out-of-town property called a dacha. I have been told it's a luxury for Americans. In Russia, I would say, it's pretty normal to have a dacha - a summer home for vacation, out in the rural area. Maybe I'm wrong on this one."
"5G speed internet. Unlimited data. A luxury in Russia, pretty much the norm in the US today."
"Avocados. Canadian maple syrup. But that could be said for any imported foods. They are ridiculously expensive in the RF."
"Some construction equipment. I watch HGTV regularly and what they use could be considered a luxury in Russia, at least some of the equipment and materials. However a log cabin, I'd say, seems to me as more of a luxury in the US than Russia, because the most common type of construction in the US is the wood frame construction."
Not-a-Russian
When You Need To Smell Like A Star
"Deodorant. It’s an uncommon luxury in some East Asian countries where most people just don’t need it."
vivianmay02
And then there's these, pieces of life and society which show your rank, class, and social status without intending to the people of the world. You might think of them as commonplace, but to someone else they might be worth more than gold.
As Stated Before, Perspective Is Everything
"I remember when I was little McDonalds was quite a luxury for me. I was getting it 2-3 times a year and it was expensive for me and I guess for most common folks in my country. Not so much anymore, it have become something like the typical fast food. Times are changing. Wish you all good fellow Eastern Europeans."
YoghurtPower24
We Don't Even Think About It
"Air conditioning"
fattest_rattlesnake
"In the U.S. it's very common and we're always changing it. We go to Mexico and the whole house it hot af and everyone wants to stay in the one room that has AC."
V0rt3XBl4d3
"Hell, when I lived in East Asia, people would just hang at the local mall, because they had AC."
"In Vietnam, even one AC in a house was a serious status symbol. Which is awful, because it gets hot af during the hot season."
ACaffeinatedWandress
What We Need To Exist In This World Has Changed Drastically
"A bed."
"I’m from the Philippines and I’ve never had a bed. My family has slept on either a thin mattress on the floor or a “Banig” (a handwoven mat with no cushion so you might as well be sleeping on the floor) for most of my life and this is how it is for majority of the people in the country due to poverty"
"To the people asking why I can afford internet and a computer, but not a bed…"
"I don’t have a computer, I’m using an old secondhand phone and internet service can be around $20 while a bed is $100-$300, if you’re lucky (we don’t even have space for a bed, that’s why we use foldable mattresses and mats we can roll up). From what I’ve seen, $50 can get you just the frame or just the mattress."
"Internet is more of a necessity because 3 of us here are students and we have families abroad to stay in touch with. The money you can buy with a bed can cover all of our bills and get a few groceries. I can sleep on the floor if it meant having electricity, water, shelter, and food."
meispissed
It's All Relative
"cars. A new lowest spec Toyota corolla may cost upwards $100k in singapore. That’s equivalent to an approximate 1.5 years average income."
s1vaaeyy
"Bur you have some of the best public transit in the world. In the US that is a luxury. Density and walkability are also luxuries."
dharmabird67
Not A Drop To Drink
Water. Specifically, clean potable water.
In some countries people die for the want of water.
In my country we use clean water to flush away piss and sh-t. We leave the tap running while we brush our teeth.
Nuffsaid98
So, Where Do We...
"Indoor plumbing."
HolyMolyArtichoke
"It’s incredible something that’s existed hundreds of years is still so alien to some people."
HanzeeeeDent
Never take what you have for granted. Odds are, there's a multitude of people out in the world who think of what you have as a king's fortune.
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Never miss another big, odd, funny, or heartbreaking moment again.
These days, rather than listening to music to calm their spirits or find a moment of peace, many people instead listen to podcasts.
Namely because, even if it was true crime podcasts like "Serial" which really got podcasts on the map, there is a podcast for just about everyone, on just about every subject.
Even if not all of them are quite as prolific as others, as just about anyone can make a podcast, even if they're not entirely qualified to do so.
There are some podcasts, however, which have such devoted fanbases, that they would encourage just about anyone to listen to them, whether or not it's on a subject which interests them.
"What’s a podcast actually worth listening to?"
"Friends, Romans, Countrymen, Lend Me Your Ears!"
"'History of Rome'."
"After the first few episodes where sound produciton isnt, great, its just like 200 epsidoes of incredible story of the rise and fall of the entire Roman empire."
"The dude knows his sh*t."
"Actively will call out his own mistakes during the following episodes when he is wrong (which isn't often)."
"He tells it in way better than any textbook."
"He almost never goes off the rails and talks about irrelevant material."
"And when he does, it's about baseball for like 4 seconds."
"He enjoys the topic and you can tell."- saturnsnephew
Delightful Disasters
"'Well There's Your Problem: A podcast about engineering disasters'."
"With Slides."
"I listen to one or two comedy podcasts but none of them make me laugh as hard or as proud sons of Philly and a posh British woman discussing engineering and societal disasters."- CaptValentine
Engineering Rotate GIF by AirspeederGiphyLaughing While Learning
"'No Such Thing as a Fish'."
"Funny while being somewhat educational."- _performer
When You Can't Make Book Club...
"This is kind of new - but check out 'If Books Could Kill'.”
"Two guys discuss and analyze bestselling nonfiction books that could use a good dissection- like 'Rich Dad, Poor Dad' and 'The Secret'.”
"Well researched and super funny and interesting."
"Love it."- SourKrautCupcake
Before You Click That Link...
"Darknet Diaries."- simiansamurai
internet technology GIF by PsyklonGiphyTruly Transporting
"'Old Gods of Appalachia' is a good radio drama."
"The way narrator speaks, you can feel the trees grow around you."- PotatoesMcLaughlin
Timely Doesn't Even Begin To Cover It...
"I am obsessed with 'This Podcast Will Kill You'."
"If you like the biology and history of diseases and illnesses, this is it!"
"The presenters are awesome!"- GibberishBanana2022
For History Buffs And Non Alike!
"Hardcore History."- ManNamedGray
"The History of Rome - Mike Duncan."
"The Rest is History."
"Hardcore History."- YallMindIfIJoin
Learn Social Studies GIF by Awkward Daytime TVGiphyLuckily To Be Heard, And Not Seen...
"99% Invisible."- andbosta
Before You Jump To Judgement
"'Behind the Bastards' is fantastic, but will question humanity."- azorianmilk
But Were "Right" To Listen
"I love 'You’re Wrong About'."- ResidentRepulsive·
wrong chicken GIF by happydogGiphyIn Case You're Wondering How We Got Here...
"The Anthropocene Reviewed."- Ererr50
The Stories You Thought You Knew
"My all time favorite is 'The Film Reroll'."
"They take the basic premise of a film and play through the story as an RPG, allowing the choices of the players and roll of the dice to drastically change the story."
"Highlights have included starting a civil war in Oz, blowing up the moon in ET, and the GM tricking the players into thinking they were doing an obscure 80's teen sex comedy none of them had ever heard of only to spring Jason on them and reveal it was really Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter."
"Here are a couple clips for a taste:"
"The Cowardly Lion worries about what happened to Dorothy and Scarecrow when the party got split."
"Jafar fails a will roll and falls in love with Aladdin."
"They will sometimes do sequels to their previous re-rolls and those can get epic."
"Their version of the Halloween trilogy is my personal canonical version of that franchise to me."
"Danny Hodges is the greatest ascended NPC protagonist the movies never had."
"Currently they're doing Rogue Two."
"In their version of Rogue One, Andor, Jyn, and K2SO all survived so now their continued story is running parallel to A New Hope."
"I could go on and on about the running jokes, the great humor, the unexpectedly dramatic moments with real pathos, the wonderful personalities and absolutely world class acting and improv that goes into the show."
"I dearly love it and have listened to every episode at least twice, while some of my favorites have become go-to comfort listening and I've lost count of how many times I've re-listened to those."
"But I'll let ya'll discover all of that for yourselves."
"It's a true gem of a show."
"Some honorable mentions:"
"'Oh No! Ross and Carrie': They examine 'fringe science, spirituality, and claims of the paranormal' and 'show up so you don't have to'."
"They try alternative medicines on themselves, join cults, and investigate all kind of wild claims and report back their first hand experience."
"Yes, they have done Scientology."
"You might be surprised at how far into it they got before they were found out."
"'Monster Talk': a show that looks at Fortean phenomenon from a skeptical perspective."
"Never cynical or simply debunking, they engage with every topic like there could be some merit until they find that there isn't any."
"Good research and even worse puns."
"'In Research Of':"
"A sort of spin off form 'Monster Talk', they watch every episode of the classic Leonard Nimoy series In Search Of and "present some explanations that the producers chose not to present'."
"One of the co-hosts is an Archaeologist, and it can be a hoot to hear him go off on ancient alien and Graham Hancock type sh*t."
"'Another Path:' A D&D 5e Actual Play podcast."
"They had a pretty epic campaign that I'd recommend for fans of 'The Adventure Zone'."
"They recently started a new one with new characters that doesn't require listening to the old one, although the old one is well worth the time."
"Imprinted Echoes: A Numenera actual play podcast."
"Has some neat sci-fi concepts in it and I love the crew playing it."- charlesdexterward
Zooey Deschanel Movie GIFGiphyThere is truly nothing more transporting than a good story.
Be it a variation of something familiar, or a deep dive into something you knew nothing about, a good storyteller will have you captured from the minute they uttered their first words.
Easter eggs are those brightly colored festive decorations and treats hidden for the Spring holiday.
Right?
Well, yes, but they aren't just that.
According to the dictionary, an Easter egg is also:
- in digital technology, an extra feature, as a message or video, hidden in a software program, video game, DVD, etc., and revealed as by an obscure sequence of keystrokes or commands
- in movies and television, a hidden message, as a cryptic reference, iconic image, or inside joke, that fans are intended to discover in a television show or movie
Redditor akumamatata8080 was referring to those alternate definitions when they asked:
"What was the best 'Easter Egg' you’ve found in any show, movie, video game, etc...?"
Ringu (The Ring)
"Within the DVD menu of 'The Ring' you can watch the cursed video footage."
"The best partwas that it disables the DVD controls, forcing you watch the footage."
"(But I guess you could yank the power or shut off the tv...)"
- Gelgoogilly
"Better/worse, if you do watch it then the DVD menu will also play the sound of a ringing phone right after you've finished watching it."
- res30stupid
GiphyBeetlejuice, Beetlejuice, ...
"Community. They mention Beetlejuice and on the third time he actually walks by in the background."
- Scofish91
"Might i add they say beettlejucie over several seasons. Then yes the third time he can be seen in the background"
- Nothingspecial2do
Batmobile
"In The Dark Knight, Bruce Wayne drives a Lamborghini Murcielago."
"Murcielago is the Spanish word for bat. He was driving a batmobile the whole time."
- Goatmanthealien
Duke Nukem
"I was young but the original Duke Nukem 3D had a secret where you found the guy from Doom impaled on a spike and Duke quips 'Damn, that’s one doomed space marine' - young me thought that was the most clever thing ever"
- PVGames
"All the YOU'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO BE HERE messages in hidden areas were great, too."
- GatoradeNipples
Adventure Time
"I've had a lot of fun finding the little snail that waves to you from every episode of Adventure Time."
- Level238
Metal Gear Solid 3
"In Metal Gear Solid 3 you can kill a guard in a certain area with vultures, after which a vulture may start eating him - and then you can kill and eat the vulture yourself."
"After this there's a boss fight against The Sorrow who forces you to walk past all the people you've killed throughout the game, one of them being that guard who repeats over and over 'you ate me, ate me, ate me'"
- bawdeagle
"My favorite one is also in MGS3. If you get captured by The End you are put in a jail cell. If you save and quit the game there and then load it again, a completely different game called Guy Savage will load up. You play it for a few minutes and it eventually stops with Big Boss waking up from his nightmare."
"This happened to me the first time I played it and it confused the hell out of me. I thought I put the wrong disc in the PS2, and then thought 'Wait, no, I just loaded the game... What the hell is this??'"
- sumgine
So Much Monty Python
"Found Holy Hand Grenade from Monty Python and the Holy Grail in Fallout"
- snoodletuber
"In witcher 3 you come across the entrance to a cave littered with bones and body parts covered in blood."
"And a cute little White bunny outside."
- Kriss3d
"Wasn't also a holy hand grenade in Worms? I always thought it was a reference to Monty Python as well"
- cabezaneitor
"Yeah, sings "hallelujah" and then a big explosion. Spent so many hours blowing up my friends with that."
- copuncle
"In Fallout 2 I'm pretty sure there's an encounter with the bridgekeeper"
- Overlord3456
Borderlands
"I always found the Minecraft easter egg in Borderlands 2 pretty cool. They added Creepers as an enemy to fight and they all had a chance to drop special minecraft themed guns and cosmetics. IIRC there was a shotgun that shot the minecraft fire "block" in a 3x3 pattern and a sniper that just shot minecraft arrows."
- Blackstone611
Doctor Who
"Doctor Who: in episode "Face the Raven", there is text on a wall written in Aurebesh, the lettering system from the Star Wars universe. When translated into the Roman alphabet, the text spells "Delorean", the model of car famously used as the time machine in Back to the Future. These two worlds represent time and space, the fundamentals of Doctor Who."
- LR-II
Jungle Book
"In the live action version of 'The Jungle Book', Mowgli enters the hall of King Louie and is amazed at the heaps of trinkets the monkeys have been stealing from the man villages. He casually picks up the top item from a heap - a cowbell - looks it over, and puts it back."
"King Louie was voiced by Christopher Walken."
The funny part is that I didn't even notice until my 8 year old son, upon hearing the name of the voice actor, remarked, 'oh, the cowbell guy?'"
- I_Byte
Uncharted
"Hotel Guest: (on seeing Nate and Chloe coming out of the ocean) Whoa! What the hell happened to you two?"
"Nathan Drake: Fell out of a car that fell out of a plane."
"Hotel Guest: Huh. You know something like that happened to me once."
"The hotel guest was Nolan North. The voice of Nathan Drake in the Uncharted video game series."
- RJD1977
Friends
"It’s not exactly the most creative or anything, but I loved the episode of Friends after Courtney Cox and David Arquette got married when she was first credited as Courtney Cox Arquette the rest of the cast was credited as Arquettes as well.
- stephers85
Drillbit Taylor
"This is minor, but I remember it making me laugh when I saw it."
"In Drillbit Taylor, when they're interviewing potential bodyguards, Adam Baldwin (Firefly, Full Metal Jacket, and some others) makes an appearance and says that hiring a bodyguard to protect them from a bully was the stupidest thing he's ever heard of. He was in a 1980 movie (that I saw several times as a kid) called My Bodyguard, where he gets hired to protect a kid from a bully."
"I watched the movie in a room full of people born in 1980 and after and felt pretty old laughing at it."
- well_honk_my_hooters
Heretic
"Just remembered another one: in the game Heretic, which was an FPS put out by id software, it would punish you for trying to use the famous cheat codes from Doom. If you put in the God mode code it would kill you and if you put in the code to get all the weapons it would take all your weapons away. For both it would display a message on the screen taunting you for trying to cheat."
- bubersbeard
Skyrim
"I’m sure a lot of people know this one but, in Skyrim as you’re making your way through Skuldafn, in one of the fireplaces, you can find a potato with a boiled cream treat and some pieces of charcoal, made to look like PotatOS (GLaDOS in potato form)."
- MooseNizzle
"I'm actually close to going to Skuldafn on my most recent playthrough, so I'll have to look out for that."
"Another Easter Egg that I'm sure is even more well known, but might as well be mentioned for those who still haven't heard... is that at the very top of The Throat of the World, there's a Notched Pickaxe embedded in some rocks that has a unique enchantment that adds +5 to the smithing skill. This is an obvious reference to Minecraft and its creator."
- MaxG623
Easter eggs may not be part of the main story of a piece of media, but they can definitely increase audience enjoyment.
internet what GIFGiphyPeople Describe The Most Expensive Mistakes They've Ever Made
We all make mistakes.
It's an unfortunate part of life.
But some mistakes are worse than others.
Some blunders can be extremely expensive.
Redditor dewan_art asked:
"What is the most expensive mistake you have ever made?"
Housing Market
"Wouldn’t budge from $62,500 for a downtown loft. Owner wanted 65k."
"Unit sold for $275,000 1 year later."
- EMH55
"Same backed out of buying a house for about $400k about 10 years ago, now worth about $3 million."
- reubenmitchell
Grad School
"For me, grad school. Realized I went for the wrong reasons about half way through the courses and decided that I should keep going so I wouldn't waste any money."
"I had a hard realization a few months after graduating that I could only survive paying my loans back and not thrive. I relocated to the oilfield and have been working a niche job of a niche blue collar job ever since. After working in Temps from -43f to 105 I can finally say that I paid off my loans."
- roustajoe
"The old sunk cost fallacy. Seems to be wired into our DNA as a species."
- SeraCarina
Day Drinking
"Getting day drunk with a friend to celebrate me getting a new job, the day before I started the new job. Decided to go for a walk, blacked out when it started raining."
"Woke up in the hospital handcuffed to a bed with a felony charge for assaulting an officer because apparently I fell asleep under a storefront to get out of the rain and kicked the cop who tried to wake me up in the shin, so he did the cop thing and slammed my face into the concrete while he handcuffed me."
"Had to pay thousands of dollars in attorney's and other legal fees to get the charges dismissed, went to my first day at my new job with a cut-up face that I had to figure out how to explain, and now I'm stuck at that job because despite it being dismissed, the charge still shows up on background checks so nobody else will hire me, and I can't get it taken off my record until it's been 8 years because it's a charge for a violent offense against a police officer."
"Yeah, I don't drink anymore."
- ErikPanic
Hiring Movers
"Trusting a moving company...cost me $1000, was a straight-up scam. The grand was my down-payment on a contract that accounted for all my stuff. A guy from a different company showed up and wanted a new contract with an extra ridiculous charge for my gun safe, and when I turned basically a random person away BECAUSE I HAD NO REASON TO BELIEVE WHO HE WAS, the first guy stopped answering calls, claimed I turned away service, and kept my down-payment on those grounds. Their company said "yep" and my bank couldn't get the money back on a fraud claim. I fully believe that if I'd let the 2nd guy take my stuff, they'd have extorted me for thousands of extra dollars."
"Mitch from Roadrunner Movers in Florida is a giant piece of sh*t, and I hope he loses an equivalent to what he's stolen from people."
- onebatch_twobatch
"In my first real move after residency the company tried to hold my stuff hostage for double the money. Luckily most of the stuff we had was crap and I told them to keep it and I’d see them in court. They miraculously were able to cover the 'overweight fees'"
- BladeDoc
Not A Glitch
"I was around 8 when I thought I discovered a cheat/glitch that gave me unlimited gold in a mobile game. Turns out I was just buying the gold with money.. I costed my family $800 that day."
- Badilol
Insurance Lapse
"Not paying my car insurance on time. Then proceeding to slide through an icy intersection and hit another car. No one got hurt, just my wallet. Almost $7000"
- sews4dogs
Fried Circuit
"Was troubleshooting an windshield de-icing test set used for F/A18's and had made an error in my set up. The error caused me to fry a non-procurable circuit card; leading to the entire test set, which was around $180k, to have to be replaced."
- squid1891
Calculation Error
"Made a calculation error at work during my first few months there which led to the firm undercharging ~$130k on a project...how I wasn't fired/written up I'll never know"
- zombiehitler_
Should Have Gotten The Insurance
"Didn't get insurance on a Polaris Razor. Side by side off roading vehicle. Had it less than 3 weeks and someone stole it from my driveway Christmas night. Had taken out a loan for 5 years.... Making the payment every month hurt knowing I didn't have it anymore."
"Only took it out once. 14k for the trailer and vehicle. Still hurts a decade later."
- lastone23
Co-Signing
"Signed onto a mortgage with my ex when I was 21 because he 'just needed a little signature, it’s not a big deal!' Spoiler alert….. it was a very big deal."
- noodlemom72
$13 Million Wrench Drop
"Not me thank God, but a new hire I fired his first day out of training for 3 safety violations. The last involved dropping a wrench from 100 feet up on a work platform onto the left OMS pod of Atlantis. 13 million in damages and inspection/launch countdown time lost. Xrays, borescopes, replaced the cracked tiles, etc."
- Bobmanbob1
Gotta Turn The Freezer Back On
"At my old job, I forgot to turn back on the freezer after cleaning it (I got pulled mid clean to go do something else) so I didn’t notice. Neither did my three managers."
"Over $10,000 in frozen product lost 🤷🏻♀️ but that place was the worst place I’ve worked so f**k Freddys Frozen Custard"
- suhryna
"Freddy's defrosted custard"
- tills31
Wrong Vendor
"I transferred $500k to the wrong vendor."
"I practically had a heart attack, but the 'wrong' vendor was another huge one so it was more like we paid an invoice a day early. Also, my boss was more in a 'everyone makes mistakes mood' and not her usual 'I'll yell at you for 30 minutes over a one penny error' mood."
- webhick
Laser Destruction
"I destroyed a $250,000 laser by shorting the capacitor bank (charged 50,000 V) to the control electronics (5 V)."
"Flash of white light, instant smell of ozone and burnt plastic, a bunch of smoke, and that was that."
- Aeolian78
"I shorted 65vdc to the 5v bus one time but only did about $8k in damage. That was an awkward phone call to make."
- Grat54
Not Buying Bitcoin
"My cousin works in finance and has been interested in investing since he was like 10 years old."
"When we were both fresh out of college (2009) I asked him what he thought about investing a bit of some money I had come into in bitcoin, which was $1 per coin at the time."
"He talked me out of what would potentially been over $100,000,000 in profit, assuming I had cashed out at the peak. I still rib him about it."
- sam_neil
Mistakes happen, that's a fact of life, but let's all hope none of ours end up being the expensive kind.
When it comes to romantic relationships, especially when marriage is talked about, it's good for the two people in the relationship to share similar values, principles, and beliefs.
Maybe you discuss whether or not you want children, and if so, when. Maybe you'll talk about how to split household duties or whether or not to combine finances. And of course, you'll talk about religion.
Religion can play a large role in life for people of faith. The rules or recommendations of their faith help them to decide what's right and wrong, what to do in any given situation, and maybe even how to raise kids.
However, if one partner is religious and the other is atheist, it can be difficult to find a middle ground. It's not impossible, but it may not always be easy.
Atheists on Reddit know this first hand, and have shared what their relationship is like with a person of faith.
The stories were as diverse as religion itself.
It all starte when Redditor Actual_Sprinkles1287 asked:
"Atheists who married a person of faith, how is that going?"
Some people found it didn't matter, and their relationship was successful.
Good With Them, Bad With The In Laws
"With her? Great, it never really comes up, she does her thing (She's Christian), we agreed the kids get to make their own choices, and that we can both explain our faith, or lack thereof, when appropriate."
"Her parents, on the other hand... Just glad they live on the other side of the country. Was worse before we got married"
– Constantyne13
"Got an identical situation here but her parents are ten minutes down the road. I used to be a Christian. They don’t know I’m not, so that reduces friction."
– 7Welds
Sunday Morning
"Had our 25th wedding anniversary last year."
"She's a member of a very liberal (even for Canada) congregation and I share most of their beliefs about things like how to treat other people, just not the supernatural stuff. She does her thing, I get to sleep in on Sunday mornings."
– YVRJon
"Last sentence is relationship goals."
– phalangepatella
Heritage Over Religion
"Well, I am the non-atheist in the relationship, but it doesn't come up at all."
"I don't believe in an interventionist deity, so there really isn't a reason to discuss it."
"Since we are Jewish, my husband is fine with the kids going to Hebrew school because he wants them to know about our history, language, and traditions. That's why I want them to go as well."
"Mainstream Judaism is not very deity-focused and Hebrew schools mainly teach language, history, and about rituals and their meaning. Faith doesn't really come up, and everyone having their own way of doing things and believing is an integral part of Judaism. So, I am not worried about them becoming indoctrinated in that way."
"We both think that it's up to the kids to make their own decisions about theism and religion, and we should give them the materials to make an informed decision."
– zazzlekdazzle
Believe
"Great! Sometimes I go to church with her, I like the content (be a good person, live simply, etc.) She believes all the science, she just also believes in some other stuff."
"My opinion is this: as a human you're going to have questions about life, the universe, and anything else. If a belief system answers those questions for you, great."
– SpaceOttersea
Perfect As You Are
"When we first met, I saw she was a "problem solver" by nature. She's religious, I'm not. I asked her early if she saw me as a problem in need of a solution. When she said, "no," I decided I'd keep seeing her."
"She still holds her beliefs, though perhaps not as strongly as before we met. We each know where the other stands, and we're both respectful of the other's views. She doesn't try to "convert me" and I don't try to change her mind."
"We're 13 years in, and doing just fine, I think."
– akluor
Others found it impossible to remain married because of religious differences.
Keeping It A Secret
"My ex husband never acted religious. Not necessarily atheist, but didn't go to church, and never prayed that I was aware of."
"We hit a really rough patch and I wanted a divorce. I found a notebook (I wasn't snooping, I was cleaning and it was in a stack of random papers and whatnot) where he'd made some list of demands to save our marriage (laughable since I was the one who wanted out due to how he was treating me). I started to read it and one said "accept Jesus into her heart." I rolled my eyes just as he walked into the living room and freaked out that I had it and yanked it out of my hand. We never talked about it amd we did eventually divorce."
– stealth_mode_76
"Hmm. It seems like for him to not have expressed religious beliefs or convictions but desires for you to “accept Jesus into your heart”—according to this list of his—seems to suggest that there were some things about him that he kept secret from you throughout your marriage. Your hands are wiped clean of him now though!"
– VibrantVirgo96
Bad Idea
"Divorced. Don’t know what I was thinking."
– Misanthropic-bug
Big White Lie
"Divorced for that reason"
– CommunityGlittering2
"If you don't mind me asking, why did it only become an issue after marriage?"
– Forever-Alone-1
"Because she lied about be religious, before marriage she said she was only acting to please her mom because she lived at home. And we would bring up any children without religion and they could chose when they were older. She lied."
– CommunityGlittering2
Some people found that their partner's faith changed, or they even switched around who was a person of faith and who wasn't.
Hard To Keep The Faith
"She’s not Christian anymore. I never belittled or attacked her faith throughout the years. Between cancer taking her sister and simply aging, her belief slowly eroded away."
– heH0rnyRobot
"This. I prayed for a few years for my husband to come to faith. After crippling mental health issues and having special needs kid, Now he believes in a god and I lost every ounce of faith I had."
– Interesting-6743
Some people are still together but still find religion a topic of contention.
Trying
"Not swimmingly well. But we're hangin' in there."
– owdoidothiz
Exhaustion Comes With The Topic
"I'm a person of faith who married an " I dnt believe in God but I believe in something"
"We love eachother but when this topic comes up it's so f*ckin draining"
– ShruteFarms4L
"do you mind sharing why it's draining?"
– lunafxckery
"...well we talk a lot, as you can imagine that means the Convo often drifts to God. When we talk about God usually we end up also bring up past traumas and we both have a lot. I believe God gave me the strength to get through it, she believes she was abandoned."
"She also brings history into it too (where was he during slavery, holocaust)."
"and we never ever come to a conclusion we just move on lol start watching a movie or playing with the kids, maybe drinking and whatever comes with that."
"But sometimes the covos last a little longer than usual, we have never argued about this tho, but somestimes the convos can drain me mentally."
"Short version: it's like two walls talking when God is the subject."
– ShruteFarms4L
A Bit Of A Strain
"This will probably get buried but anyway."
"My wife is Christian, Anglican in Church of England. They’re fairly liberal in their views and acceptance of what people believe, even within the church. So she doesn’t mind that I don’t believe in a single God, and the church isn’t as ‘firm’ in the UK as it seems to be in the US. So I’m not ridiculed or seen as a bad person by her or the church for my lack of faith."
"She studied to become a priest over the past few years and was ordained. I told her I would support her studying but I didn’t want to discuss God or religion with her in the way she debates with some of her other religious friends. I largely struggle with the idea that she believes something that is at odds with so much of what we know about the universe. The further down the religious path she goes, the more bitter I’ve become towards ‘religion’. (I can only see religions and The Church as a business these days, especially knowing the processes she went through to become a minister.) The values of the Anglican church are mostly good, but you can live that way without god in your life. I don’t see why religion needs to play a part of being a good person."
"In terms of how it’s been for our marriage, it hasn’t really been a factor for most of 25 years together. It’s frustrating that she usually wants to go to church on Sundays, which leaves me to do everything else that falls on Sunday morning (notably kids’ sports commitments). I’d also certainly say we have far less in common and have less to talk about these days than we used to. She bends every possibly interesting conversation back to religion or God, and I just want to enjoy chatting without it becoming a debate. But that’s the main topic of conversation she knows and pretty much all she reads. She reads a lot about religion and theology and ‘church’ has become such a huge part of her personality, and her biggest ‘hobby’ that she is much less interesting and has fewer passions or interests in life that she can share. It doesn’t leave much for us to discuss when I have no interest in religion and have become so bitter towards it."
"So no discussion of separation or divorce - we’re not miserable - but religion has more recently played a massive part in us having far less in common."
– Arrow_King
But ultimately, it seems people can make it work.
Love And Honor
"I'm still married after 30 years. She has her religious beliefs, and I support her as best I can. She doesn't push anything on me. When she wants to do her thing, I give her space. If I have to be involved, I just stay quiet and be respectful. It's not that hard to do. No need to hate someone because of differing beliefs."
– Live_Ice8502
What a great attitude to have!