By Teabag,
No more intros.
Let’s just get straight into it.
The illusion of money.
Money at its core is just a piece of paper…
An electronic zero on a book of accounting in a bank somewhere.
In the same way metres measure length and grams measure weight.
Money is a measure of wealth.
Just a measure.
An idea of how much someone is worth.
Money is just a well organised peer to peer system of sharing.
Provided we’re in a social setting.
You give your money to Mama Mboga who gives it to the farmer (supplier) who gives it to the guy who sells fertilizer and so on and so forth.
I mean think about it.
Someone stuck on a deserted island has no use for money.
Because there’s no one to share it with.
Can it really be defined as real wealth in this case?
“We are psychologically perverted in such a way that some of us would like to have money rather than real wealth.”
-Alan Watts
My thoughts on money.
If you wanted 1 million shillings.
and you currently had 100,000,
Would you be happy for the 100,000?
Or would you be unhappy over the 900,000 that you didn’t have?
Then it would be a defecit.
A debt taken in the mind.
Always left unpaid.
And let’s face it…. debt is hard on everyone.
So let’s assume you eventually you get that 1,000,000
Sure, the idea of having one million is enough.
But what’s the sense of it all if you can’t use it?
It’s just a zero in a bank or a shilling in your pocket.
Money is there to be spent.
And don’t get me wrong,
There’s always a limit to how one can use their material wealth.
It’s possible to own 7 cars but impossible to drive them all.
You cannot buy a second belly to stuff yourself with.
(Infact using the one that you have irresponsibly will lead to an early death).
And that’s where most of us are.
Doing things we don’t love,
In a constant state of fighting for the next shilling.
Finally hitting a financial milestone,
A little dopamine hit later
a brief “self congrats” if you may.
All for the question:
“What next?”
The desire of 1 grows into 2 and 3 into 4
And before long,
In your later years, you realize it’s an invalid race with no end.
(I mean you can’t have all the money in the world…
and even if you did… What would be the use?”
If money all existed in one hand that would debunk the entire existence of it,
ama?)
To which I ask.
Isn’t it more fulfilling to find contentment in what you have rather than what you lack.
You can’t have everything in the world.
And even if you did you don’t know how much time you have to spend it.
Could be tomorrow, could be today or 10 years from now.
I’ll take the parable of the rich fool as an example.
“And he told them this parable: The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. 17 He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’ 18 “Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. 19 And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”’ 20 “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’
Luke 12:16-21
Can I talk about the third illusion tomorrow?
But here’s some insight:
Are you current actions dictated by the sorrow of a past you cannot change?
Or by the idea of a future you know nothing about?
Think about it.
