Price Tags

A few years back, I recall a conversation with one of the greatest 'kanjoos' (miser) who told me about his minimalistic approach to life and how he and his family were existing off handed-over clothes; on the parallel I also happened to meet a spendthrift who was giving off clothes from his wardrobes so that he can fill them up again for the season and to suit the latest fashion to align with his family's taste. There are people who save on food and end up spending on medicines. People who spend on luxuries and yet feel empty within. People who save and save every penny. every dollar and every paisa and finally end up in their old age watching their money squandered when shared. 

Money and how we approach it - as a means to an end or as an end in itself - quite metaphysically encompasses one's ego that needs to be satiated. Tell me what you do with your money and I will tell you where your ego (self) bloats and where it shrinks - the things you so desperately procure to feel full and the things you let go to establish yourself. Money defends the ego. 

If our ego can alter the way we use, misuse or abuse money, money too has a fair chance to use, misuse and abuse our ego - with and without its presence. 

During our discussions, my kids told me that they observed that people who speak with price tags attached to every thing they possess, are rather poor or nouveau riche. They lack class. They usually hold and never use what they have the way it is supposed to be. These are the kinds that buy an expensive carpet and hang it on the wall, buy four-wheel drives that they do not even know how to roll out of the store and end up being gaudy, greedy and jealous burning with envy in their eyes when they pry something new over their neighbour's wall. They are an easy spot at weddings, birthday parties and any such social events where they deck-up their image in a futile attempt to hide their plunging egos. Note: They should not be mistaken for the unnecessarily scanty, irrevocably transparent, miserably revealing histrionic personalities that may be floating around. Those are the attention-seeking kind.

At the end of the day, whether you wish to be flashy or wish to be subtle, you reveal more than you intend to hide.