Yesterday, I talked about how giving can
make our lives pretty sweet. Today is a new day.
“Money is like manure, it’s not worth a thing unless it’s spread around encouraging young things to grow.” - Thornton Wilder
It’s funny how high an
importance people place with money. What does money actually do for
us? It gives us more options. More foods we can choose to buy, more
places we can live, more hobbies for us to have, more things for us
to pick and choose from. Most of us are taught from a young age that
“more is better”, yet having more doesn’t always mean having
more happiness.
To me that means that money is
only as valuable as we let it be. On the one hand, we can live
happily without all of the material possessions we’ve come to
depend on. Some of the least wealthy people I know are also some of
the happiest and most grateful for what they do have. More
importantly on the other hand, I think the real value money has comes
with how we use/spend it.
When I was in high school I took
on a part-time job working retail at a music/movie store. I did it in
order to save up enough money for a home-stay trip to Japan for a few
weeks. For me, this experience was something that would prove to be
invaluable. I gained so much from it. New friends, a deeper look into
the Japanese culture, and an outside perspective of American culture
and its people. Some of my friends saved up money to buy cars, which
enabled them to have plenty of experiences on the road, which
provided them other sorts of insights and memorable moments. Some
people just think of money as a gateway into a better life and so
they just save save save; but if all you have is a fat stack of cash,
what value does it really have when you’re not using it to bring
value into your life?
In other words, money by itself
isn’t worth shit. It’s what we do with it that really matters.
Wilder especially emphasizes that it is most valuable when we share
it by investing it toward building a brighter future for others. I
think that it’s not limited to sharing with others though.
Investing in things that enrich our own lives can also be a way to
inspire others to grow, too.
Peace |
| Our lives are like a garden. If we invest and nurture it, it grows beautifully. |
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