Money versus wisdom

THE EDITOR, Madam:

Almost always, at the start of a new year, many are resolved to be financially self-sufficient, if not rich, by the ending of the year. Clearly, money is a crucial factor in life. That is the reason why people get up out of bed when they would rather sleep in for much longer. That’s also the reason why many brave the frigid winter season and the snow, and even put their own health concerns on hold for the holy grail of the bank notes. Yet, In a negative way, the need for money has also caused people to break into financial institutions whether in person or electronically. A number of individuals have willing dispossessed their valuable funds to the fortunes of the lottery ticket vacuum. Thus, in many instances, there is an inverse relationship between the possession of money and wisdom. This is obvious when some individuals become instantly loaded, where their proper perspective of wealth becomes so distorted that it not only fails to provide them any expected happiness, but also destroys the very wisdom for using that wealth responsibly. For instance, it is usually when there is a severe lack of financial resources that the true value of money becomes obvious.

Things that you will do without when you are penniless, and yet thrive, are not quite as clear when you posses the means to purchase them. It also explains why people will purchase clothing or even food items that they neither wear nor eat, because the possession of money often undermines the very wisdom for holding on to it, a wisdom, which requires strict discipline and sober foresight. The dangers of money, therefore, is that like a candle, it brightens the way before us the more we burn it, but melts away its own base for sustaining that light and hope. In order words, there is no inherent conflict or hostility between having money and wisdom, but even if wealth has been achieved without wisdom, it is wisdom itself that will keep it, or even add to it .

HOMER SYLVESTER

Elmsford, New York