Money, Health, and Character

 'If wealth is lost, nothing is lost,

If health is lost, something is lost,

If the character is lost, everything is lost,' - Swami Vivekanand

THE PIECE OF PAPER

Money can't buy you happiness. There is this weird trend going on the internet to prove this proverb wrong, for no reason. What they do is, display images of some big tycoons or CEOs and comment sarcastically to see, how sad they are. They are usually Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and Steve Jobs, and many others, but mostly these, and the irony is that all of them have been through a divorce. Their wives have left them, we never know for what really, but we are still busy considering them happy, because of their money. Most of them have had a severe divorce, and just think about how harsh the reality could have been if they are all divorced. Imagine the depth of all those years of trauma and pain Steve Job's wife would have gone through before taking this decision and that too so many years later. We still do not know what goes through the minds of their children yet. You don't know them personally, you only them on social media, they have fucking lawyers and a PR team to help them maintain a public image. But, we don't need to think about all this, because talking about money shit is seen as amazing right? 'If you think money can't buy you happiness, transfer it to my bank account,' well, why not learn the difference between luxury and happiness, instead of talking shit all day.

Money can buy you several things. It can give you financial stability for most of the part, it can get you anything you wish, and it can help you get the best treatment for a disease from the best doctors. It can get your children the best education, and it can save you from many burdens in life, but keep it to that limit. All of these things make your life somewhat less burdensome and provide you with luxury. But what happens when you can buy anything and have everything? can money buy you time? can money buy you friendship? can money buy you, love? can money buy you a family? can money buy you your mother's food? aren't all these things an eternal source of happiness? But you would rather say that people and love are a waste of time, cars and money and lifestyle is permanent, it never makes me sad. Well, they can never make you sad, because they are objects, and objects are objects, so, someone can technically have better objects than you as well, and this will definitely destroy the happiness you get from it. Well, I would rather grind, to get something valuable and would learn many new things while competing for objects, you will, for sure, but what will you earn? a watch, worth millions, which tells you time, which can also be told by a watch that is sold for 1000 rupees. Isn't that stupid? and can it ever compete with the love your family or friends will give you? Think about this.

Now let's fuck your rich idols. How many scandals, and controversies have you heard about all those rich people which involve their family members till now? plenty I guess. How many movie stars have you seen, whose kids are always high on drugs, and involved in drug rackets and shine in the media. Well, plenty and you know what they are up to, everyone knows how much media tries to manipulate people into believing they are good. These are the people with an immense quantity of money, but a family where the younger generation is baseless curses the pleasure of luxuries. Think about this too.

Money is just a tool. See it as a tool, which can save your ass many times. It is like a shield that can protect you from several calamities which can occur in your life. See, money is like an object and not something to be worshipped. Some of you might say, that money can also buy relationships, but remember that you are the one building that criteria in your own life. If you want to be liked for your money and not for who you are, you will only attract people who rush to someone with more money, the day you lose it. So, see money as a tool, not a fucking deity.

A BITTER PILL TO SWALLOW

I do not care about my health. Seriously, I actually do not care about my health. I do not work out, I do not eat healthy either, and I am out of shape. I catch cough and cold easily like dozens of times in a span of three months. I catch diseases rapidly, and I get nightmares about my health in the future. Maybe I am not so qualified to educate you about health, but I know one thing, I do not back my arguments with bullshit to defend my bad habits. Caring about your health is an important thing, it's a really important thing. But, there are a few limitations to that too. First, we shall discuss why is it important, and then we shall talk about those limitations.

Suppose, you are super rich. You have everything you wanted. People, respect you, you feel secure, and you have all that respect and charisma you wanted. Now, let me ask you a question. What would happen if you are on street, and a couple of gangsters murder you and run away. Doesn't matter if you would be given justice or not, but the fact is that you died. This is what, money can't buy you, a life. Many of us have read the story of batman but only a few of us understand it to the core, and what it tries to convey. Bruce Wayne is a rich kid, who faces the death of his parents in front of his eyes. This tears apart his sense of security and brings in the concept of death at a really early age. Since then, we see Bruce using all his resources and money to bring power and strength, not luxury, no cars, but power all the time. If you are a fan of batman like me, you would know for a fact that batman is the real entity, and Bruce is just an act. Bruce is not the alter ego, he is the actual act, batman is always batman, even when he is alone. So, please do not try to confuse the cocky nature of Bruce with what we are trying to convey here. It was at that moment, when his parents died, that Bruce came to realize that no amount of money can buy life. So, we can conclude from here that, if health is lost, something is lost. But why something? why not everything? we shall discuss that in the next section of this article.

I mentioned about some limitations earlier. You might be wondering, that what is wrong with me working out every day, what is wrong with me focusing on my health each day. Well, there is nothing wrong with that, but there are a few conditions that everyone must meet to avoid sucking up their life. How many guys have you seen who hit the gym for the very purpose of looking attractive to their crush, but not their own health? We see them daily, someone might claim that, no, I do it because I like working out and not for some girl or even some insecurities of my own. Really? then why did so many of you stop being there at some point? Because fooling yourself, ask yourself the same question. Am I doing this, for myself because I like it, or maybe for the approval of other people, because I am made fun of? if your honest answer, is yes, you do it for approval, then you must first work on feeling comfortable with yourself, and maybe then you should look out for hitting the gym. The gym, is a great place, and you are doing a favor to yourself by going there each day, but remember, the purpose of going there should always be for your health and not for someone's fucking approval.

IS CHARACTER EVERYTHING?

Why is it everything? there is a really famous narrative going around these days, to show the world that I don't give a damn about how you all view me, or who I am, so I will behave in any manner I like. Should you? Let's talk about it here. But we also had a question, why is character more important than health. If I offer you two things, either Death or Life imprisonment. Which one do you think would be harsher. Obviously, Life imprisonment, we have been hearing this since we were kids. But, let me make an analogy here, what if I say that a bad reputation, can be Life imprisonment, and bad health would mean death. Both are bad, obviously, but which one is worse. Bad health, with a good character, can cause you to decay, but you will at least have people to care about you, and maybe this would be enough for you to be satisfied with who you are. But with a bad reputation, if you hit bad health, you will have no one to ever look after you, and this would mean severe damage. How many people have you met, at whose funeral, there is a huge crowd gathered in their memory? Well, that's the case where you earn a human.

There was a movie scene I recall watching as a kid. There were two goons fighting for some unknown reasons and goon A tells his underdog to shoot at goon B. The underdog instead shoots his own master and stands beside goon B. Goon B then tells his rival that he can earn an immense amount of money, but he forgot to earn a man. Maybe that says a lot about the advantages of a good relationship. Good relations have a byproduct called loyalty. But good relations come at one cost, and that is good character. A good character can buy you a lot of things, which money can never. A good character can even buy you someone's precious time. Why wouldn't someone spend time with a person with whom they love talking to? And this makes the character a great aspect of our lives.

But what about the narratives going around on being on your own, and not caring about people. We will talk about it in depth in some other article as well, but for now, here we can debate that not caring about what people think, and not caring about what people feel because of you, are two different things. You can be a lone wolf, but that doesn't mean you need to be mean to everyone you meet. You can be the most real being on this planet, but does that mean that it comes with being rude or angry all the time. Maybe, not, maybe you never questioned it. You can be real and honest without being rude and frowning all the time. Maybe you believe that people who are fake have a huge fan following for they are always sugarcoating things they say, and that is true most of the time. Even such reputation and character have no good significance if it's not coming from your true intentions. Let's just conclude here that a character must be rooted in who you truly are, and not with a hidden agenda of yours. We shall discuss this topic in great detail in a new article, and it will be interesting.

So, after we have talked about these three aspects of life, we can conclude that all of these three are extremely important. But when you prioritize things, you must consider the wise words of Swami Vivekanand as well. Maybe, you might not agree with a few things I mentioned, and that is a great thing as the goal of this thing has been achieved, you have started contradicting and thinking for yourself, and that is our ultimate goal, to be able to think for ourself, and not relying on external sources of advice. So, do give these aspects a thought and try writing them down too.