I guess we managed before money and could find a way to do it after, although you are right, how to wrap your head around that one, what would it look like?
I did chuckle at your Stockholm syndrome analogy 😁 It is scarily accurate.
Money is countable so provides a decent way to measure value and progress so I guess it is a good a way as any to know when you are doing well or not, I lost the game so, so long ago, it's not even funny.
You and I know though, that value is a subjective term, and the things we derive true value from are not the Benjamin's, it may appear that way when, caught up in the moment or playing the game, but we are both smart enough and of the right mindset to know where it is really at.
A little while ago, I was laid on a bed feeling like I was gonna die, but survival instinct told me that I wasn't actually gonna die, it just felt bad at that time... A doctor or more accurately a consultant came and talked to me in a very matter of fact way and said Mr Wood, I will do what I can, but there is a strong chance that you will die!!!
He wasn't comforting, or consoling but direct and I have always liked him for it and still do, but what I can tell you is that in the hours that followed a raft of things were organised and prioritised in my head and I remember the over arching realisation about money, it doesn't matter... Everything I had aimed for, dreamed of and thought I wanted didn't even register a flicker on that scale of priorities...
The only time money came in to it is when I thought about m'lady and I thought Crap! She can't afford a funeral, and what's she going to do for money???
Then I realised she would be so unbothered about money after losing me and that kinda stuff would work out somehow anyway, it always does...
Less than 3 weeks after being 'outta the woods', I was released from prison hospital and within days I got sepsis and apparently wasn't expected to pull through again and all I wanted was to spend as much time as I could with m'lady and my daughters, it was like a bolt of lightning struck me and I genuinely understood things, except the wolf in the bed opposite, surrounded by pink sparkly orbs (I had a VERY serios fever, I should point out!!!)
This is not intended as a spiritual awakening tale, replete with the very secret of life contained within, just an experience I had which felt more real than most of my life in the previous 52 years.
Now then... If you offered me $1 million, would I accept?
ABSO-BLOODY-LUTELY!!!
And if you have that lying around and it has no purpose you should totally do that whole offering it thing 😁You see I have never perceived money to be evil, despite the obvious evidence of evildoers with money and how they act.
I see it as a tool that magnifies, if you are good at heart, you can do really good things with money the opposite is obviously true. As you inferred societies without money or more likely with socialism, do not inspire the creators to create as everybody winds up with the same amount anyway. That monetary measure is removed is progress is more difficult to measure. Even if satisfaction to the task is the measure, the state will likely seize your life's work and divide it among the masses equally, of course 😛
That was a long way to reach this conclusion... I don't bloody know the answer! 🤣
Yeah dude it’s a tale as old as time - what do we do when there are radical changes and things that have been done a specific way for hundreds or thousands of years, changes? Brutal question but I think it’s one we should noodle on every so often for a good mental exercise!
I think it also helps to think of it because then we can figure out: where do I derive value? Where do I identify myself?
A lot of times identity and value come from the work that we do. I’m incredibly proud of the work I do and I think it would be difficult to think of it a different way. Not impossible but difficult.
Money goes away - what else do I derive identity and value from? Work would be largely meaningless. Of course my son but that’s not going to fill all the gaps. Decent thoughts to chew on!
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I fully appreciate your altered states of consciousness in those moments! There’s so much to be said about that and I think for sure the wolf is symbolic in some ways. I don’t know what for but there’s so many aspects of the brain and how it works that we have absolutely no idea, and when we are very sick that’s one of the big ones!
Indeed in those moments, the whole money thing is largely useless to our worldly body. The only thing it’s good for at that point is a tool to help the family get themselves back onto their feet if we untimely pass. I am for sure glad you didn’t enter the permanent horizontal state, as is your family. Life is a fickle thing that’s for sure!