Your town’s library, park and pool were paid for by people who mostly never met you. Use them well.

Public things were paid for by strangers, most of them dead. A library, a park and a pool exist because people who never met you voted for a tax, served on a committee or left money behind, for the use of a town they would not live to see. Nothing about any of it was free. It was prepaid by people with no stake in your particular life.

Use them, often, and leave them better than you found them. Later, when it is your turn to pay for something you will not personally use, remember that this is how it works.