Money is the solution to all your problems. If only you had a million dollars – life would be bearable, interesting, enjoyable, maybe exhilarating. With every waking breadth you concede money, money, money is the answer to your prayers. Well is it?
As the concept of money evolved over the millennia – substituting agreements of value for things – money became a substitute for power. The words: “money”, “power”, “property” have evolved as a series of surrogates: with power the primordial desire, and survival in a material world the paramount quest. Things, objects – property, possessions – became proxy for power. Over time money became a proxy for things. The desire for power springs from a natural instinct to stabilize an unstable existence. Money has come to represent what we covet most – power. Money is power!
After the need to survive the most pervasive force in the human psyche is the drive to gain power. We want to be in control, we want to be in charge – we want to be powerful. So by securing prosperity for yourself and your kin, you aren’t looking for money. You really aren’t looking for tangible things; you are seeking power. But to what end?
We are simple, relatively small and powerless creatures making our way in a material existence. We judge our surroundings and our success by what we can see, hear, touch, taste, and smell – this is after all a physical world. And in this physical world we see limited resources, limited time, and lots of competition. We have come to believe, by lifetimes of physical evidence, that our survival and success are dependent on our ability to compete for a share of the resource pie; to accumulate what we can, and thereby achieve some level of power over our existence.
Digging a little deeper leads to the question – Why do we want money? In the final analysis it is not money, nor things, nor power that really matters – these are all means to an end. Life is ultimately all about experience and the experiences we seek are about abundance, about growth, and fulfillment. We seek money for power, we seek power for happiness. Ultimately, it’s all about happiness.
Life is fleeting. We are on a temporary journey, moved by some forces to act – what we seek is happiness – what we get is experience. If experience and happiness are not one and the same, then the task is not to labor for money – it is to find fulfillment.
Money and power are really only tools. What you seek, truly, is to build an abundant, fulfilled and fulfilling life. Money, as a medium of exchange, as a unit of account, and as a store of value is one tool available to you to use in this physical existence. Don’t waste life accumulating money when what you really desire is happiness. Devote your time, energy and talents to the manufacture of joy and money won’t matter.
Copyright © 2010 Scott F Paradis
