standards

December 22, 2012

The Cost Of Living

The future is a dimension of possibilities–

Out Of Time The Realm Of MeditationI don’t think we think about cost anymore, which is ironic isn’t it? A socialized civilization that has as its sole means a standardized value measurement system (read: currency AKA money) regards any and everything through numerical denomination $1, $5, $10, $20, . . .  Dollars. Money. The green stuff. Money seems like a pantheon god at whose feet all gather for possession of the slightest farthing afforded them.

So cost. The price of goods and services, or as it also known human resources. Human resources. A system that creates the necessity of standing in line and occupying waiting rooms. Is this a waste of time only when the time could be spent spending it on some other civilized activity? Does our time cost? What costs time? Do we ever really stop to think about that question?

Often an idea, a concept, a prepackaged bit of data is surreptitiously installed into innocuous places. Benefits of the effort at being obvious. It goes unnoticed, like language. Any language. It doesn’t matter, data has no language built in, so it can be transacted into anyone. The process remains the same. A phrase like spending time. How do you spend your time? Don’t we also spend money? Is time expensive? Sometimes, we want to buy time. Can you use credit for that? Could you layaway time? What’s your monthly budget on time? It seems weird, doesn’t it, yet that is how we communicate.

So cost. When the sole exchange used for everyday transaction is used as a currency (think: flowing stream. Think: ocean current. Imagine an electrical circuit current), what is the cost of living? What is the cost of time? Should we measure cost in time rather than dollars? How much does time cost? And how much time does it cost? If we did measure cost in time, would we value time more? Would our whole system of values change? Would we spend less time doing things we hate for more time doing things we love?

“Time keeps on slipping into the future. . .” ~Steve Miller, Fly Like An Eagle

Life is not measured in dollars it is measured by the consciousness, the mind, by nature. There is no price to pay with free living. It’s why I lived outside, why I slept on the ground in the woods beneath the starscape. To me, a conscious life is priceless. A consciousness needs it to exist healthy, to exist in union with the universe. From the quantum to the “edge” of the universe. I exist. I live consciously. I offer no excuse and ask for none.

How do you value you?

*Image credit: “Out of Time, The Realm of Meditation” by Cornelia Kopp

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