Does Money Make You?

Everybody knows, I love the personification of business. I love talking about an organizational emotion or feel, its value system, beliefs, culture--all those things that go beyond location but which location also influences. But a lot of businesses (not all) are measured in money. And that got me thinking about measurements. 

Measurements and happiness. 

I believe that gratitude is a base foundation for happiness. and not just the quality of being thankful, but it's full definition: readiness to show appreciation for and to return kindness. It's a way of approaching the world, and it isn't tit for tat; it's a lens that looks at everything like a gift--not in a corny way, in a you-didn't-get-here-on-your-own, really-though, biological way. And I say that because on my ride home yesterday, I thought to myself, no amount of money can make Me. I mean this in reference to essence. That even if you could make a child, scientifically, paid for, you can't make It. Does that make sense? 

In English we use capital letters for proper nouns because we refer to them specifically. So, even if I can make you, I can't make You. There's a difference. I'm using it in the same way that Emerson uses "nature vs Nature." One is the thing, the other is the essence. 

When you have this realization that money doesn't make you, can't make you (unless you're Truman from the Truman show, in which case money will try to make you and fail), what do you do? How do you measure yourself? What does the scale look like?

Is it how many people you help? How healthy you are? How well you can paint? Your ability to feel? The color of your skin? The place you were born?

It seems we have a set of measurements in place all the time, some sets swiftly moving like an equation on an abacus. They take on different categories and placements. Group one is usually something like gender, ethnicity, place of birth, family, and then we move on to things that are more malleable, group two: grades, stamina, sociability, interests. And then further on: money, house, job, car, religion, travel, life experiences, etc.

Personally, I like all of these measurements all the time. It keeps me busy. And it allows me to lie to myself and say that structure is real. I didn't say structure isn't useful, I said it isn't real. It is in practicality, it certainly is in biology, but in essence, in particular, it's not. 

So the answer to the question, does money make you? Is...Yes. It does. If that's a measurement you want to use. And there is no shame in that. What there is shame in, is pretending like you don't know it doesn't.