It’s All So Convincing

Growing up, you and everyone you knew made the resolution that one day you would get a paying job. No one questioned the legitimacy of such an endeavor – money was the magical resource that would cater to your every whim. Living without money was seen more as a death sentence than a choice.Well, here we are… still looking for that one job, that one investment, that one gamble that will make us more money. If money is so important why don’t we just produce a lot of it and give it to everyone? Shouldn’t we start the printing presses and fire our cash cannon in everyone’s face?There exists an important distinction between legit and non-legit money. Money is supposed to be interchangeable with some unit amount of goods and services. Money is supposed to be meaningful in this respect; as opposed to being a flimsy piece of paper. In other words, money is suppose to represent something.Money is like a casino chip, it represents something.One reason casinos use poker chips instead of real money is because gamblers aren’t attached to their chips as they are to their money – too much emotional baggage attached to it. Casinos don’t want their customers to see the chips as grocery bills and mortgage payments; they want them to be lost in the game. I feel that we often forget what makes most of our thoughts and actions intelligible. The thoughts and actions I am referring to are the ones that revolve around money. We waste are days and our health with our financial pursuits. We literally stress ourselves to sickness - agonizing over our shortcomings. Sometimes we need to step back and make sure we aren’t lost in the game too.