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?