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Musings Report 2023-3 1-14-23 What's the Real Wealth in our Lives?
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For those who are new to the Musings reports: they're a glimpse into my notebook, the unfiltered swamp where I organize future themes, sort through the dozens of stories and links submitted by readers, refine my own research and start connecting dots which appear later in the blog or in my books. As always, I hope the Musings spark new appraisals and insights. Thank you for supporting the site and for inviting me into your circle of correspondents.
What's the Real Wealth in our Lives?
We spend most of our lives focusing on money as wealth, but we get a much different answer to the question, "what's the real wealth in our lives?" sitting in the ER waiting room.
When we're in pain and our health has gone haywire, all the things we thought were so important and valuable--money, status, prestige, titles, diplomas, recognition, the admiration of others, praise, awards, and so on--suddenly lose their pride of place in the panoply of what's valuable.
Listening to others' health problems or witnessing their distress adds to our insight.
Once we've lost our health or are in danger of losing our health, we understand that everything we thought was so important and valuable pales to insignificance.
Once we've lost our health, we discover that what we thought was wealth (money) cannot restore what we've lost. People worth $200 million cannot restore their health once it's been lost.
Once we've lost our health, we're ready to cut a deal: we'll give up everything to have our health back, or have the health of a loved one restored. But there is no such trade-off available.
Medicine tends to view the body as a machine that can be repaired with treatments or procedures. The role of our minds, life choices and behaviors are generally given short shrift.
As a general rule, what goes on in our heads--the contexts and habits of our thoughts, emotions and goals--and our choices and behaviors have a direct impact on our health. The mind and body are one, and what we do and what we tell ourselves every day impacts our health over time.
Stress manifests in all sorts of ways. I wrote my book on burnout to share my experiences of the cascading consequences of stress, overwork, slave-driving ourselves, sacrificing ourselves via martyrdom and sainthood, etc. But stress can also manifest as illness and disease.
The irony is that when we're healthy, we fear the loss of whatever we rely on for our positive sense of self: our money, prestige, position, power, accomplishments, awards, strengths, etc., and the recognition, respect and praise we get from others.
We fear the loss of these externally generated markers because without them we feel diminished.
But when our health is lost, all these projections of selfhood in the outer world are revealed as illusions. All we want is our health restored. Nothing else matters.
Once we learn what's actually valuable, and that it's none of the things we thought were so desirable, we might also learn that it's better to generate our positive selfhood directly, rather than rely on the intermediaries of the outside world: money, recognition, prestige, titles, diplomas, praise, possessions, assets, etc.
These markers of accomplishment are projections of our insecurity, and their importance and value are illusions of our minds.
It's better to skip the struggle to acquire all the external intermediaries and just give ourselves security and positive selfhood directly: I like myself and my life as I am right now. I don't need anything outside myself.
Liberation is freeing ourselves of projecting our inner needs and fears onto the external markers of possessions and the opinions of others.
On 12/26/22 I added this to my list of aphorisms on the blog:
"Liberation is no longer needing any confirmation or feedback from others or the world for one's sense of self. Wealth, fame, recognition, admiration, praise, prestige, approval, sainthood, martyrdom, success: none are needed, none are desired."
Put another way, seeking external confirmation via possessions and the approval of others gets in the way of our liberation from insecurity and fear. We believe they're the path to security and positive selfhood but they're actually obstructions.
We think we'll be liberated from insecurity and fear if we can amass possessions and the approval of others, but these are illusions, and so they cannot liberate us as we hope.
All of this becomes clear in the ER waiting room, if we watch and listen, not just to others but to ourselves.
I've been in waiting rooms for myself, and I've been hurried in on a stretcher. I've been hospitalized for accidental injuries and repair operations a few times.
I've been in accidents that could have ended my life if some small factor had been a bit different: how I was thrown and pinned by a small tractor, how the safety rope broke when I slipped off the roof of a 3-story house, how I fell and was knocked unconscious when the ladder slipped, and so on.
We like to think of ourselves as strong and in control but when you're badly injured or in pain or ill, you come face to face with our fragility and vulnerability.
There's the moment after you've hit the ground or come to and you're in shock and trying to figure out how badly you're hurt. You don't know. Ww fear our life has suddenly taken a terrible turn that cannot be reversed even as we hope we can get our previous life back in full.
When you're in constant pain and ill, you also don't know how serious it is. But we do know these things: how unexpected this all was, how fragile and vulnerable we are, and how little we actually control.
Sometimes we're passengers in the wreckage, sometimes it was our recklessness or impatience. Other times it's inattention or maybe just bad luck: wrong place, wrong time.
Other times it's the result of what we did to ourselves because we thought our health was a limitless bank account we could draw down without ever facing any consequences.
But this sense of invulnerability arising from our endless bank account of health is also an illusion.
When we're laying there awaiting the surgeon, we realize we're alone. No matter how many others love us and care about us, our mind-body is ours alone, and we face the uncertainties, fears and hopes alone.
So much has been written about spiritual enlightenment and psychological self-realization. Much of it seems inaccessible and distant from everyday life. It's held up as a great treasure only a few manage to obtain, typically by some long arduous path few can manage or some insight few can attain.
It seems to me that the real treasures are the small joys of everyday life that we overlook when we're healthy and striving for wealth, recognition, enlightenment or self-actualization.
These small joys are taken from us when we're in pain, ill or seriously injured. They're what we want back. Once we realize that all the externalities we believed were so important and valuable are actually meaningless, then it's the small joys of everyday life we want back, not the things we believed were so important.
Yes, we need enough money/wealth to avoid being hungry and unsheltered, and in the U.S., enough money to afford health insurance so if we do fall ill we can get whatever care is available.
But beyond this, what we really want without even being aware of it is our health, the liberation of liking ourselves and our life as we are right now, flaws and all, and the small joys of everyday life.
Looking back, I was just as happy, and maybe happier, living in a plywood shack, eating beans and rice and hauling water to the garden in 5-gallon buckets than when I had more assets and nicer shelter and a hose and spigot.
Wealth is not the accumulation of assets so much as owning our destiny and having the freedom and health to pursue it, and the freedom to enjoy the everyday experiences of life.
Highlights of the Blog
The Forgotten History of the 1970s 1/13/23
What's Behind the Global Erosion of Civil Liberties, Privacy and Property Rights? 1/11/23
What if the "Black Swan" of 2023 Is the Fed Succeeds? 1/9/23
Who Will Save Us From Ourselves? 1/8/23
Best Thing That Happened To Me This Week
The dwarf banana I planted in June has already flowered and produced a stalk of bananas that will ripen in 4-5 months. I've never seen a banana produce a flower and fruit in a mere six months.
From Left Field
NOTE TO NEW READERS: This list is not comprised of articles I agree with or that I judge to be correct or of the highest quality. It is representative of the content I find interesting as reflections of the current zeitgeist. The list is intended to be perused with an open, critical, occasionally amused mind.
‘Disruptive’ science has declined — and no one knows why: The proportion of publications that send a field in a new direction has plummeted over the past half-century.
The big idea: what’s the secret of innovation? "The highest marks went to projects that brought together received wisdom with some fresh thinking." -- In other words, "innovations" that don't disrupt the current beneficiaries of existing technological monopolies...
Legacy of Japan’s Nakagin Capsule Tower lives on in restored pods
‘To gain respect, you need success’: the trans tycoon from Thailand who bought up Miss Universe
Why European Democracies Are More Resilient Than Expected
Bitcoin is the Detector of Imbeciles -- harsh, but that's Taleb. We have to read those on the other side of the trade, too, not just those who agree with us....
Guy Debord’s Warning of “The Role of the Expert”: A Philosophical Perspective on the Rise of Fact-Checking (via Zeus Y.)
Jay Hanson’s DieOff Revived And Other Important Articles On Peak Oil And Energy Issues
Can Small Reactors Revolutionize Nuclear Power? (21 min)(via Patrick S.)-- an objective and succinct overview...
‘Disability is not a tragedy’: the remarkable life of activist and rebel Hale Zukas -- both my wife and I enteracted with this gentleman when we lived in Berkeley because he lived down the street from us and would tool by our flat in his souped-up wheelchair...
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." Richard Feynman
Thanks for reading--
charles |
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