Brain Food #453
Some more thoughts on value
Daily Brain Food.
Thoughts of the day
What did you realise you value the most during this pandemic? Uncertainty has led to a subsequent reduction in the value of what we took as inherently valuable, based on the fact that it has a price tag, or its potential to influence other price tags. Ironically, the same uncertainty has led to even more certainty about what we truly valued all along.
Health. The future. Being outside. Each other. The world came together, to keep these safe.
And, on a more personal level, is it being alone, or not being alone? Being understood, or being different? Privacy? On these, it is up to us to decide.
And also, the elephant in the room. The jobs that make a lot of money, but have been largely useless. And the jobs that make very little, but have been making all the difference.
What we invest in, using any resources we have available, will change. Now may be a good time to consider what, or whom, we want to invest in.
Invitation
by Mary Oliver
Oh do you have time
to linger
for just a little while
out of your busy
and very important day
for the goldfinches
that have gathered
in a field of thistles
for a musical battle,
to see who can sing
the highest note,
or the lowest,
or the most expressive of mirth,
or the most tender?
Their strong, blunt beaks
drink the air
as they strive
melodiously
not for your sake
and not for mine
and not for the sake of winning
but for sheer delight and gratitude –
believe us, they say,
it is a serious thing
just to be alive
on this fresh morning
in the broken world.
I beg of you,
do not walk by
without pausing
to attend to this
rather ridiculous performance.
It could mean something.
It could mean everything.
It could be what Rilke meant, when he wrote:
You must change your life.