No Money, No Honey
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Bill Clinton, Neil Diamond, Johnny Cash and Tom Cruise – besides being old white dudes they have another thing in common: their names spell cash, literally. Although Tom’s surname could be interpreted as an expensive, rip-off holiday on a big boat…
My first year at university is almost over, and there are a couple of things I have learnt from society – after having fallen victim as a mindless robot at times. But, since I do not own a Blackberry and refuse to sign up for Twitter, I think I can be excused for acting like a spoilt brat at times.
I learnt the phrase, “No money, no honey” from the mass of poor shopkeepers and T-shirts parading around Thailand (this is where my friends burst into a fit of laughter as I can’t pronounce the ‘Thai’ part properly). And as I’ve said many times in my articles, this website is basically my silent observations of everyone and everything around me. One of the things I have learnt is that money can, and can’t buy you happiness. Money is everything for the right and wrong reasons; money isn’t everything; money makes the world go round; money is the root of most problems, and can be the cause of unhappiness (but according to Douglas Adams, money itself isn’t actually unhappy?); it can also be the best thing that ever happened to you!
It defines us, tells us what to do and what we should do. One paper-thin note can make us regret the things we should have done and it can turn the closest friends on one another. But, after (and during) an extremely stressful exam period in June, I came to realise that money isn’t everything. My dad buying a Wii during my Physics finals didn’t make the stress go away; having a choice from over 100 TV channels certainly didn’t push all my negative thoughts aside, and listening to music on my iPod (RIP Steve Jobs) did make me happy – but I’m damn sure listening to Simple Plan on a cheap mp3 player would have made me feel just the same. Having materialistic items did make me happy, but only for a short while, whereas an unhappy feeling can dwell and brew for many years. So why do we keep searching for happiness in materialistic (short-term) things, when saving up for half of our lives just to afford shiny objects only causes us more pain and stress?
I’ll tell you why. It’s a known fact that humans, animals, plants – life – is never satisfied. We’re always changing and looking for something better, even if we don’t realise it. When we’re not satisfied, we either hunt or evolve. For example, an eco-friendly horse-and-cart never satisfied us, so we evolved and invented the basic car. Still unsatisfied, we hunted for something greater – the airplane. And just like that a wave of dissatisfaction so great hit the planet that we even fast-forward through commercials nowadays – the very same commercials challenging us to find something better in our unfulfilled lives! We’ve evolved into a race so advanced we’re even two steps ahead of our own thinking. We’re so desperate to find the meaning of life in money that we live our lives in fast-forward, and don’t need ad breaks anymore to tell us what’s lacking in our flawed existence. We’re so advanced, we already know.
But the one thing most of us have yet to realise and move past is that money isn’t everything. I realised this shocking fact 3 months ago – but I’m still on the I-cant-move-past-this-shocking-fact phase. Money isn’t everything, but it sure buys me a lot of every things. And buying things makes me happy. I use money to buy things that make me happy. Screw you Jessie J – it IS about the money, money, money! Sometimes (okay, most of the time) we use money to buy things just to impress others.
Money brings me stress, anxiety, pain, desire, lust, jealousy, negativity, anger, illness and bad luck. Money makes me happy, joyful, excited, smile, cry, dance, laugh, sing, listen, enjoy, appreciate, forgive, share, comfort and learn.
Money made me use the word about 19 times in this article so far. It can bring the right kind of love, but also destroy something good. It can ruin someone wonderful and bring a wonderful someone.
I have learnt that although there are important things in life that money can get you, there are more important things in life than what money can get you.
And as they say, “You can take that to the bank!”
My first year at university is almost over, and there are a couple of things I have learnt from society – after having fallen victim as a mindless robot at times. But, since I do not own a Blackberry and refuse to sign up for Twitter, I think I can be excused for acting like a spoilt brat at times.
I learnt the phrase, “No money, no honey” from the mass of poor shopkeepers and T-shirts parading around Thailand (this is where my friends burst into a fit of laughter as I can’t pronounce the ‘Thai’ part properly). And as I’ve said many times in my articles, this website is basically my silent observations of everyone and everything around me. One of the things I have learnt is that money can, and can’t buy you happiness. Money is everything for the right and wrong reasons; money isn’t everything; money makes the world go round; money is the root of most problems, and can be the cause of unhappiness (but according to Douglas Adams, money itself isn’t actually unhappy?); it can also be the best thing that ever happened to you!
It defines us, tells us what to do and what we should do. One paper-thin note can make us regret the things we should have done and it can turn the closest friends on one another. But, after (and during) an extremely stressful exam period in June, I came to realise that money isn’t everything. My dad buying a Wii during my Physics finals didn’t make the stress go away; having a choice from over 100 TV channels certainly didn’t push all my negative thoughts aside, and listening to music on my iPod (RIP Steve Jobs) did make me happy – but I’m damn sure listening to Simple Plan on a cheap mp3 player would have made me feel just the same. Having materialistic items did make me happy, but only for a short while, whereas an unhappy feeling can dwell and brew for many years. So why do we keep searching for happiness in materialistic (short-term) things, when saving up for half of our lives just to afford shiny objects only causes us more pain and stress?
I’ll tell you why. It’s a known fact that humans, animals, plants – life – is never satisfied. We’re always changing and looking for something better, even if we don’t realise it. When we’re not satisfied, we either hunt or evolve. For example, an eco-friendly horse-and-cart never satisfied us, so we evolved and invented the basic car. Still unsatisfied, we hunted for something greater – the airplane. And just like that a wave of dissatisfaction so great hit the planet that we even fast-forward through commercials nowadays – the very same commercials challenging us to find something better in our unfulfilled lives! We’ve evolved into a race so advanced we’re even two steps ahead of our own thinking. We’re so desperate to find the meaning of life in money that we live our lives in fast-forward, and don’t need ad breaks anymore to tell us what’s lacking in our flawed existence. We’re so advanced, we already know.
But the one thing most of us have yet to realise and move past is that money isn’t everything. I realised this shocking fact 3 months ago – but I’m still on the I-cant-move-past-this-shocking-fact phase. Money isn’t everything, but it sure buys me a lot of every things. And buying things makes me happy. I use money to buy things that make me happy. Screw you Jessie J – it IS about the money, money, money! Sometimes (okay, most of the time) we use money to buy things just to impress others.
Money brings me stress, anxiety, pain, desire, lust, jealousy, negativity, anger, illness and bad luck. Money makes me happy, joyful, excited, smile, cry, dance, laugh, sing, listen, enjoy, appreciate, forgive, share, comfort and learn.
Money made me use the word about 19 times in this article so far. It can bring the right kind of love, but also destroy something good. It can ruin someone wonderful and bring a wonderful someone.
I have learnt that although there are important things in life that money can get you, there are more important things in life than what money can get you.
And as they say, “You can take that to the bank!”