What Money Cannot Buy

While trying to sort out my inbox, I opened an unread email sent by a friend probably before New Year's Eve. It was one of those chain type of emails where it threatens that bad luck will fall upon you if you can't be send it to over 20 contacts. I was just about to delete it (it was just a waste of inbox space anyway) but decided to read it first before sending it to oblivion. The email contains a short Chinese proverb that certainly punched a few holes into my personality. I've read it somewhere before and you probably did too but let's go over it just to make sure we are talking about the same adage.

With money:
You can buy a house, but not a home.
You can buy a clock, but not time.
You can buy a bed, but not sleep.
You can buy a book, but not knowledge.
You can buy a doctor, but not good health.
You can buy a position, but not respect.
You can buy blood, but not life.
You can buy sex, but not love.

It makes one feel guilty right? Here we are living in this world, trying so hard to earn more just so we can buy a big house in a nice or if not, in an upscale neighborhood. In doing so, we no longer have time to spend with our loved ones, most especially with children (for those who have kids). Can't get enough sleep because our jobs keep us anxious at night. Compromise health because of the tedious workload and in some worst case scenarios, forget about respecting others just so we can get what we want. It's a shame, but that's what money can make us do in exchange to all the material happiness it provides.

But yet we still yearn to have more cash. It's like a global phenomenon that has been taking the world by storm since the beginning of civilization. Men have fought over it like animals. I guess people are born that way. We seem to have greed embedded into our DNA.

The proverb reminds me of a Nicholas Cage movie, The Family Man. In the story, Cage plays Jack Campbell, a rich and powerful businessman in Wall Street. He was surely on top of his game but one Christmas eve, Jack realized what he had lost because of his insatiable hunger for wealth. He lost the chance to be with Kate, the love of his life. He lost the opportunity to become a good father to kids Josh and Annie. He lost the chance to know what its like to live a simple life.

Because of money, I lost precious time. Time that I should have spent with my father. And now no matter how much I have, I can never get him back. Nor the time that I have wasted away from him. And I'm not even power-hungry as Jack was. I was simply trying to live my own life.

Obviously, the proverb implies that money is not everything. To some extent, it can make one happy but that happiness is only temporary. What matters most are the things that money can never buy: a home, time, sleep, vast knowledge, good health, respect for others, love and life itself.