While I haven't been through a near-death experience, the last 10 years have definitely rearranged my priorities. While I can't speak for my wife, I'm fairly certain she feels the same.

By all standards we should have been upper-middle class, I had 25+ years experience in a skilled career and my wife had graduated with honors from one of the top law schools in the country. And yet, on Christmas Eve of 2012 I turned the keys of our modest house over to the bank and we spent the next 16 months without a mailing address. I hesitate to use the term homeless because we never actually had to sleep in the car but we moved 9 times during that period, including a 2 month stay in a hotel room and several long weekends in a friend's RV.

I don't feel indifferent to what the vast majority of Muricans find "important", I feel more like the kid in the Emperor's New Clothes trying to point out that none of them are wearing any clothes.