Lucky to be

It is likely pretty obvious to those who read my work regularly that a large part of my guiding force and inspiration is my family, my wife and daughter. We face our challenges as individuals and a collective but, we have survived so far. It takes a lot of work for us to hold things together for various reasons but having purpose makes things much easier to bear.

If you notice, I tend to call my posts here work fairly often because that is how I see it. It isn't the reward aspect of it, it is the purpose part. Some are here for fun alone, or the money but I have other goals too. Yes, I like the value I earn and enjoy staking it into the platform but, I see money as a tool, one that has rarely been in my toolbox.

@whatsup wrote a post mentioning those that speak about not caring about money and how often it is the people who want it the most, don't have access or are unable to work out a way to get enough. I agree, it ous an avoidance or suppression of desire, not a lack of want. Much like the celibate priests abstaining yet, continually talk about sex as something evil.

Money is not evil, it is a tool and therefore, it is how you use it that adds the potential context of good or bad. Like most, I would like to earn more than I do so as to get out of debt, provide a little comfort and padding for my family, but what then?

I think that the more money I have access to, the more work I would end up doing. Money is a resource that buys time, and I am not one to sit around on a beach for long, there is too much to do. It goes back to my family of course, and my future potential family.

If I want to provide an environment where my daughter can be her best, it isn't likely one where the world she lives in is drowning in our own filth. It goes beyond just her though, it has to. Living in a climate controlled bubble is unlikely to bring out her best either.

I have often thought what I would do if wealthy and I think it would be to fund and directly support ideas that help humanity be better at various levels. Get cleantech start-ups off the ground, hire researchers and scientists to help develop practical measures and find new ways to cut down on pollution. Money is a tool and what we buy with it shapes our world. This includes all the junk we buy.

Pay level and job tasks relatively equal, I wonder if there would be a difference in perceived life satisfaction between someone who works in a cleantech company or one who works in the oil industry? Is a job a job or does the goal of our work matter too.

I had a Math teacher at school who was very intelligent and a nice guy but, a pretty terrible teacher. Turns out that previously he was engineering weapons of mass destruction and couldn't live with it. They were going to be designed and made anyway but, he preferred to have a sense of atonement by teaching high school kids. He felt more meaning and purpose also, like he was helping, not harming.

I wonder if he had had children before taking a job, would he have taken the one creating weapons that could or would be used to kill? Experience and perspective change buying decisions. Some things that might be done for the money would never pay enough, other things can be done although they pay very little. If there was no money in banking, who would be a banker by choice?

Yep, those that often talk about money or any other topic commonly likely are lacking that thing in their life or, fear losing it. I wonder if everything was going smoothly in my family, would I write about them as often? Maybe not, perhaps the hardship is a constant reminder to be grateful for what we do have, rather than what we are missing, difficulty lifts rather than oppresses us.

It would be nice to move on to some new challenges rather than health issues though. Health is wealth but illness drains much more than a wallet. I hope that as she grows, she can find purpose and meaning outside of trying to be healthy, and part of that relies on the world we create for her.

Thoughts before thoughts.

Taraz
[ a Steem original ]
_{(posted from phone)}

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