about values.
Value. It’s almost hard to think of the word without a consumer voice: value-priced, value-added, value for your money.
Value in it’s truest sense means to hold dear and to keep precious. It’s a word once meant for our children, our heirlooms, our self-respect. I’m hoping that we might bring it back. How hard could that be?
All it would mean is to hold our values up for people to see. I value my family, my friends, my time with the people I care about. Not everyone has family. Some people are alone.
I value my freedoms, my rights, and my responsibilities, even when they wear me down, because they build me up too. Not everyone can do as I do. Some people don’t get the chances I got.
I value the luck I have to write every day and to be who I am. Not everyone gets to be who they are. Some folks are asked not to see what they see, not to know what they know.
I have a voice and a heart. They can show what values are.
A voice with values is stronger than value-added . . .
A heart with values is more than a precious stone . . .
I’ll value my time and spend it with people I love
because I value them.
And we should value other people’s good values. A big problem with the world today is that people who have values are considered stuck ups.
Ah Amrit,
What a wise man you are to point that out. It’s a person’s right to hold dear that which he or she values. I will not expect you to hold my values, but I will respect your values. Giving space, generosity of spirit, is a valuable trait. 🙂
Voices and hearts with values. That’s really all it takes to change the world, isn’t it? (Perhaps you need double branding on this post) 😉
And per your prior comment, yes I value your writing and your friendship very much!
Mike
HI Mike!
Yeah, I bet that is all it would take. Sounds so simple doesn’t it? 🙂
Thank you. Goods go both ways.
I think it is more than just having values, but having good ones and keeping them at the top. Some value money or fame to point of letting it ruin lives (both theirs and other’s). Putting too much value in feeling good or having a good time seems to result in drug and alcohol use far too often.
You gave some excellent values in your example.
Hi James,
I’m with you on making sure that the choice of our values is crucial to our well being that of those around us too. What we value shapes our lives, our world view, our perception of others, probably everything that we do.
Floccinaucinihilipification.
I’m sure you know it’s a real word and what it means, and I used to be fascinated by it because it reflected something I used to be:
Treat everything as worthless.
To see the value (read – beauty, reliability, sincerity, love, more…) in anything, I had to see it in myself first.
When I didn’t value myself and what I stood for, everyone and everything around me was worthless, too.
So how do I see my own value? I started really small – doing small things that made me feel good. From little deeds that put in some self-esteem and removed some ego. By not being judgmental, and for a change, think from the other person’s point of view.
This shift in attitude sometimes appears weird, at times funny and yet poignant… the least I can say is that I know for a fact that I wasn’t born with any values. If I can even remotely claim that I value something today, I know the values weren’t just ‘given’ to me it. I had to work for them.
Hi Zakman,
To leatn to love yourself in bits. This is the way. Thank you for spelling it out. This is a beautiful testament of what we can do if we are determined to turn our world around.
Claim that which you value today and know that you earned them. That is a powerful philososjy to drive a life. 🙂
There are people who have families yet are alone. And there are people who don’t have the ability (for what ever reason) to see the chances laid before them.
Then there are those who have no families who find great value in company and never feel alone. And those who have almost nothing who find beauty in everything.
Value is in the eye of the beholder, the ability to love begins with accepting yourself the way you are. To see value in others you must first see value in yourself. Value is both learned and natural.
I value what I’ve learned through others and through experience. I value what I’ve learned through suffering. I value what I’ve learned through learning about myself…even those things I didn’t care for.
And I’ve found tremendous value in the fact that this is where I can get all Zen about things like this and you actually enjoy it. 😀
Hi Kirk!
Most people understand that there are two sides to every story and both people care about their own goals. Some people understand that if we reach out to help others reach their goals then ours don’t seem quite so far and quite so hard to get to.
Many folks get to a learning that as we get older, we come to understand our history is worth something of value and we should keep our memories where we can hold them close, not leave to get damaged by neglect.
I enjoy the lovely experience of inteeligent folks who bring value of their words to visit and leave comment like yours here to make me smarter and more enjaged. 🙂
I also should never attempt a comment late at night after writing up two rather complex posts and intelligently answering a few well written, well thought out comments to said posts. By the time I’m done my brain (such as it is) is pretty well fried. I tell ya’…It’s not easy learning how to think again. 😀
Kirk!
I think you do just fine! 🙂