Yesterday, at a stop light in my home town, I saw a shiny, red Lamborghini. At the time I saw the 200-thousand-dollar-plus sports car, I, also, at the same red light, saw a nice, fairly new Mercedes. It got me thinking:
When that person bought the Benz, if he bought it as a symbol to legitimize his status in society, he probably got a best-car-on-the-street feeling every time he pulled into his driveway. How must have he felt when a much more expensive red Lambo drove by?
When I got engaged, a couple years back, a few guys I know felt compelled to tell me, with obvious ulterior motives, how much they spent on their wives’ engagement rings. I kept thinking, “You know you don’t have the most expensive ring on planet Earth?” But that didn’t matter to them. They just wanted to have purchased a pricier ring than me. (By the way, I never told anyone what I paid for my wonderful wife’s engagement ring.)
Is what our mothers told us as children not still appropriate as adults? “Just be the best YOU you can be.”
If your self worth is how expensive your car is, someone is worth more than you because someone always drives a vehicle that cost more than yours. Your self worth is directly related to how much you spent on your wife’s diamond engagement jewelery? Someone is, consequently, a better human than you because someone always bought a more expensive ring. It’s true of anything. If your self worth is tied up in things, someone somewhere is a better person than you because they have things that cost more money.
If you are the best YOU you can be, nobody can beat you. If you are content with YOU and what YOU are, nobody can do it better, nobody can be better than you.
People seem to forget (or ignore) what we were all taught as kids.
“Sticks and stones may break your bones but names will never hurt you.” But, every night of the week, 2 people are fist fighting over name calling. One person, who doesn’t know or have any feelings towards this other person, is insulted by something this stranger says and decides to punch him. Why does a person care what some stranger in, for example, a bar thinks or says? It’s crazy. It happens all the time- fighting over name calling. Asinine.
And sharing. Our parents spent a significant amount of time teaching us the lessons of sharing. All of us were taught as kids the value of sharing. But, in the USA, in capitalist America, a look-out-for-#1 attitude is prevalent and pervasive. Greed is almost encouraged. Capitalism implores a person to do for themself even at the expense of others. Capitalism is not about what is best for all in a society. It is about how I can make this money for me no matter who else it negatively effects. A capitalist society is a place of haves and have-nots; not a society where everyone’s interests are taken into consideration- what is best for all.
As adults, people forget or choose to ignore what we all knew as little boys and girls taught to us by our moms and dads. Collectively, personally and politically, maybe we should take a step back and relearn the lessons we knew as innocent children for our own individual benefit and the benefit of all.