We all know the old saying, ‘Good friends better than pocket money’, which speaks to the value of real friends being absolutely priceless. Yes we have colleagues and associates, but then we have those ‘ride or die’, bonafide friends that if we call them crying about catching our significant other cheating, they would get so riled and cuss him out properly and then of course head over with a gallon of ice-cream to sit around watching ‘Waiting to Exhale’ while calling him every nasty name in the book!
Yes, real friendship is free and priceless and so are a few other things that money just cannot buy. We see super rich people all the time doing the most for the cameras and social media and then shortly after we hear about their dysfunctional lives and we shake our heads saying, ‘Wow, all that money and they are still miserable’. This proves that there is more to life than stacking dollar bills daily and that indeed some of the best things in life are definitel
Peace of Mind
Try buy that nuh! Nothing, and I mean absolutely nothing can replace your peace of mind. Why do you think so many psychiatrists and psychologists exist? To try and recalibrate your medulla oblongata and correct your cranial malfunction of course. In other words without peace of mind, life would be a daily disaster.
Class
Professor Rex Netteford, may he rest in peace, once famously opined that “a bhuttu in a benz is still a bhuttu”. Truer words have never been said because money can buy countless things but it has no bearing on class. So a man maybe filthy rich with the biggest house and most expensive car, but still walks around without a belt so his bad coloured underwear is showing and he has more crack exposed than Harlem! Go figure!
Repect
Is the one thing that you have got to earn based on your treatment of others and the way you carry yourself. No amount of force, fear, fraud or favour can get you this invaluable commodity. Cracking a whip over your employees, talking down to them, belittling your students or beating your step child won’t get you any. There is a ‘helluva’ difference between fear and respect.
Boy if this did sell a shop, we would all have fewer problems, less road rage, anger and less need for prescription drugs. This emotion is so sought after yet sadly so elusive because many of us have a false sense of what truly makes us happy. We think the perfect hour glass body, a bigger bank account, a pretty face, lighter skin or being married to Mr. or Mrs. Right is the answer to all our ills when none of the above will work because external factors ultimately don’t guarantee our happiness at all.
Health
I once knew a man so wealthy he had his own branch in one of the top life insurance companies in the 1990s. When he retired, the company could not afford to give him his pension in a lump sum so they agreed on monthly payments. The figure is still the stuff that urban legends are made of. However; as he grew older and his health deteriorated, his diet consisted of mainly porridge and liquid foods. Imagine have all the money in the world to eat all that you want (like shrimps, exotic delicacies, lobster etc) and be stuck eating ‘baby food’! Wealth without health is pretty useless.
Integreity
It is said that integrity is doing what is right when no one is looking and that is more profound than you even realise. How a person speaks about an individual behind their back actually tells you more about the speaker than the person they are gossiping about. Money simply cannot buy character. That is something you build with compassion and consideration for others, knowing that you should never do to someone else what you don’t want done to you.
Manners
The sad thing about this is a person cannot pass on what they themselves had never learnt, so sometimes we see young children or teenagers doing stuff that irks us enough for us to shake our heads but it is not really their fault because they were never taught. No one taught them to say ‘good morning’ when entering a room or that a young man should open or hold a door for someone of the fairer sex. They do not know that men should walk on the outside or that calling a woman ‘a bitch’ is not a term of endearment. That ‘please’ at the end of a sentence is required when asking for something and that generally manners open doors so much quicker and easier than being a thug or a bully.
Sincerity/Honesty
Ain’t that the truth! A lot of times you see celebrities/artistes walking with an entourage of followers and ‘hangers-on’ who mimic their shadow, laugh at their dumb jokes and pump up their egos higher than a set of Goodyear tyres or a wrestler on steroids! These people tell them what they want to hear because they are just along for the ride. They know that the truth may get them banished and what’s the point in that when living in the hype is the objective. They don’t mind being paid puppets enjoying the gravy train.
Good Weather
Lord, if event planners could purchase this no wedding would ever be spoilt by bad weather, no outdoor party would ever ‘flop’ and no lady with cute, expensive shoes would ever be caught walking in mud when a sudden downpour turned a garden area into a swamp. Yes, you can check with the meteorological office and get a fair enough prediction but even that is not an exact science so for the most part you just watch for the gathering clouds, ask your ‘granny’ if her arthritic knee is acting up, pray and avoid as many outdoor functions during the height of the active hurricane season.
True Love
Some people are adamant that cash can buy you love and on any given day of the week you just have to check around ‘backroad’ in Portmore or any other red light district to see the many ‘purchases’ being made. However what is being bought is not love, it is sexual satisfaction so yes money can buy you the ‘wickedest slam’ all wrapped up in a bow but while you can secure the act itself you cannot secure the feeling or emotion that goes along with it. So you pay for the pleasure only. True love is not fleeting and certainly does not end after orgasm. True love is the kind that will let an individual wipe your ‘derriere’ if you are sick and unable to do it or rub your bald head if you are going through chemotherapy. It is the kind of deep emotion that no longer notices that you have morning breath and will rub down your prickly legs even when you have forgotten to shave. Give you a foot massage without you begging for one, just because they know you need it. Now that is love and that you can’t purchase with a Visa or MasterCard