Things we value

Humans are weird. Our brains are weird. Life is weird.

I was smoking my pipe and going for a stroll, and I started to ponder the nature of the things that we place value on, and I started thinking about the things that I personally value:

1. My son
2. My fitness
3. My career

All of these things have something in common — I have to work to maintain them and/or I notice their absence when they are not in my life. It led me to a conclusion: humans only value the things they have to struggle to have, maintain, or that they have lost.

People do not value the things that are handed to them, because there is no investment of time, energy, resources, or effort. It is, psychologically, worthless to them. Worse, the things that are given to them are not only worthless, but they are also worthless despite whatever personal cost that the giver might have paid.