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Saturday 6 June 2015

Love, Money & Happiness


The world, in which you seek to undo the mistakes that you make, is different from the world where the mistakes were made. You’re now at the crossing. And you want to choose, but there is no choosing. There’s only accepting. The choosing was done a long time ago.” ~ Anonymous
I am a girl who stands at the crossing. There’s a difference between the crossing and the crossroads. The crossroads is a crisis or stage. The crossing is the point of no return. I stand now past the point of no returning. I have made my choices. There is no going back.
I don’t know what compelled me to see Indecent Proposal last night. It was perhaps, given my new sensitivity to violence and darkness, not a good choice. But I have long been an admirer of Demi Moore & Robert Redford.
Well, how we people relate Love, Money & Happiness ad which is more important…sounds typical, yeah. I often keep on thinking over it and drawing flowcharts but never able to conclude.  Importance of these things is very situational. These are very different and hard to compare. This is because happiness & love has intrinsic value (end in itself) and money has instrumental value (means to an end). 
Think of instrumental value as a stepping stone toward something, and intrinsic value as that something you are stepping toward. *smiles*
It's just not that simple. Does taking vacations make you happy? Does taking vacations with family make you happy? Not having extra money would make both of these options impossible thereby reducing the highest level of obtainable happiness. But that's just an example.
According to a friend of mine “Happiness and money are not separate things. They come as byproduct of what you like and do in your day to day life.”
But I am thinking what next?  Once you have a certain level of wealth, happiness becomes the clear winner, but below this point, happiness can be difficult to manage. You are not happy with your mansion, yacht, and limo because all that crap is old hat and you don't even notice it anymore.  Is it so?

“And Man is very Ungrateful” (17:67)
Falling in love also doesn't happen in a vacuum. People take the whole package into consideration at some level.  The fact that person A has a lot of money is going to be more attractive than the fact that person B sleeps on a park bench.  These preferences are downplayed because the common narrative is that love is blind.  But it really isn't.  Some people rank having a pretty smile above financial security, but most would settle for a slightly less attractive partner with good prospects.

After watching the film, it is still clear that everything has a price, but that price is more than a monetary number. For example, David Murphy realized that having 1 million dollars without Diana was not worth it. Thus, he was happier before the decision. However, one would never know for sure. Love and money are universal concepts that people have been try to balance. Likewise, if you do not have love in your life, money is not worth nearly as much.
In all, money is not a requirement for happiness but it can certainly reduce the friction on the road from discomfort to comfort as it's more comfortable to cry in a BMW than on a bicycle. *hahaha*. We need money to survive. So we have to try to combine the struggle for money with pursue of happiness. Because happiness has no price tag.

In a nut shell, what is your price for something you value deeply?



9 comments:

  1. I am gonna go all philosophical on you here...bear with me :)

    Something that stemmed from the graph in ur post...its all in circles...money love happiness smile n so on

    Love gives you happiness...money gives you happiness...when u r happy with what u do...ur job...u get money...u smile when happy...u smile when u get the paycheck...u smile when in love...but well u cry too when in love...u cry when u dont have money....u cry when u r not happy...too much money causes insecurity...love is insecure...happiness is followed by a period of gloom.

    So what makes everything nice? Love? Money??...for me it's the moment...could be the moment when i am getting showered with love...or could be that moment in the month when my salary comes. Reasons are momentary...Happiness remains...or atlst thats what we want in the end....

    ...oh and the movie said..."when you love something...set it free"
    was it only for the girl he loved...or was it for the mn dolloars he gave back as well?? makes you wonder doesnt it

    Sorry for the long comment :)

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  2. Hahaha Mayz, you dont need to change your identity.
    Change this Lucifer first, You know Lucifer was Cinderella's step mum cat & always keep a bad eye on Gus & Jaq. An evil cat & i don't like her.

    I can bear this philosopher :)
    yeap the moment... i agree... there were the moments when i was happiest on earth but ....
    oh yeah... when you love someone, set him/her free, if he/she comes back to you, it means no one liked them, so set them free again :D hain na

    And sorry is accepted for this long comment :) and i was actually waiting for your comment... i guess my only alive reader on planet.
    love you x

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    Replies
    1. Haha Lucifer was also The Fallen Angel.. Elusive.. Mysterious..Sinful. Maybe not so much of a cat as much as a horned Devil ;)

      I came back...does that mean no one liked me?? :o hehehe

      ...and well I am kinda selfish as your only alive reader.. and if you are wondering why... Read the adjectives I used to describe Lucifer ;)

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  3. Hahaha well everyone likes you and didn't you see how everyone is saying you welcome back welcome back :)

    Elusive & Sinful..... sounds cool but how can you relate it to be my only alive selfish reader? your blogger friend is mysterious too on the other way round :)

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  4. nice but these days(according to our surroundings) money is necessary for happiness. But i think happiness is in your self. An individual will be happy when he/she starts enjoying each and every thing.

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  5. true happiness has no price tag infact & thank you for stopping by :)

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  6. That's unfair. Money does not buy you happiness otherwise the beggars and most of the working class might never have that much to be happy about. Happiness is a state of mind, sure money, love and whatnot contributes towards that, they all give you a slight reason to make an effort to be happy but the absence of those does not mean you can't ever be happy. Although after having too much of either of those at one point and then losing it all is a different thing altogether...

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  7. You are right @shama true happiness has no price tag.You will never know true happiness until you have truly loved and you will never understand what pain really is until you have lost it. Now it's for you @shama I wonder what you are thinking every time you look
    at me and smile.Whatever it is, it gives me butterflies in my stomach.Nothing feels painful than when you love someone with your whole heart and soul and she sits in front of you and you are afraid of saying anything.You can talk with someone for years,everyday, and still, it won't mean as much as what you can have when you
    sit in front of someone, not saying a word, yet you feel that person with your heart, you feel like you have known the person for forever....connections are made with the heart, not the tongue.

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  8. Lolzzz asshole. What a shit comment.

    ReplyDelete