How do you measure the worth of a person? An economic indicator might be net-worth, the monetary value of assets minus liabilities. Or it might be found in their credit score or the size of their house or bank account. Perhaps it can be determined by age, the younger person having greater opportunity to contribute over a longer period of time, while the older person may be coming to the end of their productive aspects.
Maybe it really depends on who you ask. Someone who loves you will surely assign a greater worth to you than another who doesn’t know you at all. What is distinctive here is one measure is based on externals while the other comes from a deeper place within.
My wife and I were sitting in the food court at the mall when she called my attention to an attractive woman walking by. She proceeded to inform me that the woman was wearing a $200 blouse, $300 jeans, $800 boots, and carrying a $2,000 purse. I’m not sure if clothes really do make the person, but we seem to be able to easily place a value on the external.
Our first house was a twin in a tightly packed neighborhood. Three trees, two flower beds, a deck and a small shed filled the yard, front and back. Our second house was a custom-built brick colonial on two acres surrounded by horse pastures, fields and streams. Twenty-six trees, two porches, a deck, a swimming pool, two sheds, numerous flower beds, walkways, a vegetable garden, a berry garden, an acre of fencing, rows of bushes, and 500 feet of paved driveway were added in the first few years with plenty of room for more.
It was customary during the course of conversations with people we’d just met to ask where you lived. The response to our first home was a simple, oh. The response to our second house was often along the lines of, oh, I know that house, you must be rich!
Oddly, nothing much had changed for us except our address. I was earning the same money as I had in the twin. It was only the outer circumstance that had changed. In fact, I had less money in the country home. The country house cost many times more than the twin to furnish and maintain.
Mowing, trimming and weeding took about an hour in the twin. In the country, mowing was an all-day affair. Trimming the trees and bushes took about a week and weeding the gardens and flowerbeds was never-ending. It sounds nice to have lots of stuff, but that stuff has a price beyond the sticker.
How do we measure the value and worth of a person? Their clothes, watch, jewelry, automobile, address, degree, and pedigree are all external and essentially meaningless. Does a $50,000 car really prove your successful? How much money do you need in savings or retirement before you feel secure? It’s all just stuff and it can disappear much faster than it showed up.
I think the only real measure of a person is the extent of their happiness and their kindness. I’ve known very wealthy people who were absolutely miserable and extremely poor people who were exuberantly happy. Experience has proven that happy people are much nicer to be around.
More stuff won’t bring you happiness. But happiness will bring you the stuff that truly matters. And what matters most will ultimately be found within us.