As Asians, we grow up inculcated with the value of thriftiness. We're taught to spend carefully and save up for rainy days - which is probably the reason financial crises are always tamer in Asian economies and corporations compared to those seen in the West.
And it's a brilliant thing, being smart about how we spend our money - as long as we view our money as a tool to reach our end goals and not hoarding it as an end in itself. There's a big difference between someone who says "I want to be a billionaire", period, and someone who says "I want to be a billionaire so I can build affordable housing for the poor."
Speaking of money, I stumbled across this literary quote today:
“And in a day we should be rich!” she laughed. “I’d give it to you, the pirate gold and every bit of treasure we could dig up. I think you would know how to spend it. Pirate gold isn’t to be hoarded or utilized. It is something to throw to the four winds, for the fun of seeing the gold specks fly!” -Kate Chopin, The Awakening
I read one blogger's take on it:
"...since reading The Awakening in college, I have been thinking about [this quote] as something other than a joyful statement advocating spendthrift behavior. I’ve been thinking about all the things that pirate gold is, in our lives, beyond actual gold. The tiny things – tying cleats, reheating noodles, checking homework, driving to school on a rime-frosted morning, folding pajama bottoms – these are not things to be rushed through so that I can finally get to Life. They are the gold flecks of life itself.
Only when we realize that these moments are the gold of life itself do we fully appreciate the gorgeousness of their flight. And, of course, the startling truth of their impermanence: what passes more quickly than gold flecks hurled into the wind? I read Chopin’s words, now, as an exhortation to spend, not to hoard: our time, our love, our energy, our spirit. We only have today. Why save up for a future that is unsure?
...I am aware of an instinct, in myself and in others, to sometimes hunker down, preserve, conserve. As though somehow our energy and love are zero-sum affairs. That may be true of energy, as I get older, but I’m sure love is limitless."
I thought about a certain person who once told a crowd:
"Don't hoard treasure down here where it gets eaten by moths and corroded by rust or—worse!—stolen by burglars. Stockpile treasure in heaven, where it's safe from moth and rust and burglars. It's obvious, isn't it? The place where your treasure is, is the place you will most want to be, and end up being." -Matthew 6:19-21 (The Message)
And I was reminded today of saving up - but for the right things. And learning to spend all the things I don't have to hoard. The things that multiply when they are freely tossed into the wind and shared, like faith and joy and love.
The more acquainted I get with the Bible, the more I find it to be full of radical, counter-cultural - even subversive truths that great minds from different eras and cultures and even different creeds and religions have echoed. Yes, there's plenty of timeless truths in there - but also plenty that turns conventional wisdom upside down.
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