Sometimes I cannot help but wonder what life is all about. I was entertaining my best friend who came back from Melbourne and all of a sudden, I felt happy. I only get to see him once every year and that is when he comes back for CNY.
I thought about Edward from Tanjong Rhu who is always empty. He is just like an empty shell. Everytime, he just stares blankly at the skycrapers, freighters and containers but he could not make any sense or meaning out of them. Yet, he is well-educated, rich and successful in his career. For all the advantages in life that he has, he is still unhappy and unable to share in his mother's joy. Inside him, his relationship with his wife is very shallow, thus revealing to us that he does not have a very happy family or any intimate moments to cherish. His emptiness is further magnified when he is handed a binoculars and yet, he cannot "see" what is important and what is his purpose in life.
On the other hand, we have the mother, not so well-educated, rich and successful in career but ironically, she is the one who is happy. She may not see very clearly with her suffering from carataracts but she is filled with happy memories of her familial moments with her children and her husband, thus proving the fact that MONEY INDEED CANNOT BUY HAPPINESS.
Fellow Singaporeans. This materialistic pursuit for wealth and fortune. What sacrifice need one go through to obtain it? Sacrifice your happiness? Is it worth it? Will one really be happy with so much money and yet, failing to find the love of one's life. I have seen so many fall to the temptations of money and sacrificing their interests for the sake of money. Is this world coming to an end?
Thursday, January 29, 2009
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21 comments:
Agreed. Money can't buy happiness but some people still do get the misconception... okay... may be indeed money can buy 'happiness'... but still >.> *really have idea what to write in* And the thing about sacrificing their interest for money... well... i guess Greed is at work there but then... without money... you really can't live in the world either... so i guess for certain people who can't turn back... that's their only way to survive i guess ._. and sacrificing one's happiness for money definitely isn't worth it... money can buy you almost everything or may be even everything but never can it buy happiness ._. *it seems like i'm going back around and around...oh wells... i really have no idea what to write...*
Technically,the world will end eventually,but to rephrase the question to'Is this the end of personal meaning?',there are the few who are aware of the corruption that is money.Ironically,it is these people too who depend on it.such is an example of today's society being forced to conform to materialism.But we,as LIT students(and teacher),despite forced to follow our fellow zombies,keep in our hearts the freedom we desire...Money IS the root of all evil,and wisdom is the way to freedom[getting carried away]...
The meaning to life is not one that suits all;some feel its for making the most of experience,some feel its made onthe warmest of love and romances...and some others?...JUST WANT COLD-HEARTED CASH...So the few who share this blog,dream to truely live...or just hoping to cause deforestation???
I guess i can agree with that anonymous person but... money isn't necessarily the root of all evil... it can be the greed of the person which causes money to be the root of all evil... wisdom is the way to freedom.... hmm... i have nothing to say to that... *shrugs*
I guess i can agree with that anonymous person but... money isn't necessarily the root of all evil... it can be the greed of the person which causes money to be the root of all evil... wisdom is the way to freedom.... hmm... i have nothing to say to that... *shrugs*
It's actually the things that money can't buy that contributes to happiness, I think. Materialistic wants and all the stuff that can be gotten with money, they have the power to make you feel happy for a while, but that happiness doesn't stay long. Kinda like drugs. You get high for a while and feel infinite, but that feeling dies after a while. I believe that there are still people in world who understand that happiness cannot be fed with objects etc. So of course, the world isn't coming to an end.
About the mother not needing money,i don't see how it goes to the conclusion that money cannot buy happiness,it only proves that happiness NEED NOT be bought.Besides,the mother is aged and wise.Youth and young adults such as edward obviously still DEPEND on money for happiness.Why else then would he be so obsessed with numbers.He is no doubt obsessed with it,and what better to count than money.
no one can really say whether money can buy happiness or not. i guess it all depends on how people define happiness. if i had the money, i'd buy myself a new life or something crazy like that. like an air ticket to some foreign place and never come back to this sh t place again. i figured i'd be happier this way.
Money can bring little bits and pieces into happiness, but it's a puny excuse, or facade for many people. I think, even if money can bring alittle happiness into life or money is essential, people still need to strike a balance between work and family.
money makes me happy, so i guess i agree with ashley. it's how you define happiness.
What we want naturally changes as we grow older.
For eg, when we're young, there'd probably be a time in our lives when we yearn for material items such as a new hand phone, a new bag, etc. But, I believe, that as we grow older, we're bound to experience things such as love, friendship, etc and we slowly begin to realize that it is not material items that constitute our happiness but rather things that cannot be bought with money such as family, or a shoulder to lean/cry on.
That's what I think, but of course that does not apply for everyone. It all depends on what makes you happy, I guess. For Edward, he finds joy in numbers. While his mum, on the other hand, finds joy in reveling in old memories.
I sorta agree with samantha,as much as we hate money it,its closing in on us.If i may do so,take mr Chia for example,obviously he himself understands the downsides of the existence of money,yet he is also under the influence of it...
Then again,i guess i'm also countering her views when i say this because i'm also saying that we conform to this 'drug' next to all our other wants instead of discarding our other wants along the way...
I agree with Ashley.
Money CAN buy you happiness depending on how happiness to an individual is defined. For me, happiness is meeting Beyonce face-to-face so if I have the money to buy VIP backstage passes, then money has bought me my happiness. On the other hand, if someone else only wants constant bigger and better things in life, then any amount of money will never be sufficient to quench the greedy man's thirst thus proving that money CANNOT buy happiness.
Live within your means and be satisfied with what you have.
Think about this for a moment. Edward is rich but he is never happy. Edward's mother may not be rich but she is happy because she has happy memories of her family. Which is more important, family or money?
memories are nice, but that's all they are
money of course! money is essential for survival and i mean it in every sense of that phrase. there are cases where families fall apart because they find themselves in financial crisis and at the end of the day it's the lack of money that caused a crack in their relationship. sometimes without money but with lots of nice memories or things that people claim that money can't buy, it only makes your life more miserable and not any better.
Money is important. It is very important i admit. But relationships and family are equally important or even more important than money.
To me, i can't live well if i have billons; but all my life, i'm the lonliest creature on Earth who faces four blank walls at home everyday. Well, you will say that money can get me a companion. But, how long will this person be with me with no conditions applied? This person will only stay with me when i feed him with money. Whereas family and true friends would do it without money in exchange for the time they spend with you. It is priceless.
To me, money can't buy me real happiness in life.
Money and family are two completely different things...it is unfair to assume that all will find family better than money,it is also unfair to assume that all will find money better than family...
Even in evening under the frangipani,lack of finacial security led Prakash to the point of low self-esteem.It is the same lack of self esteem that makes him feel more afraid of Elaine than he should.
The evidence can be found in the occurance of Elaine getting annoyed at him for talking about beetle hands at an inappropriate moment.Prakash thinks to himself that it could all be settled later.We can see here that he procrastinates a little;and based on the occurance it is likely out of fear of Elaine's temper.but it is this fear that creates a slight employee-employer relationship between himself and Elaine.
Which is ,then agian,yet another social force between them.
Therefore,lack of money indirectly led to playing a significant role in the seperation of Prakash and Elaine;which caused great discontent in Prakash.
Therefore,money still proves to be a significant factor to affecting happiness.
Money is nothing more than paper credit!!!IT cant replace sentimental value.It only represents the option of exchanging it for material belongings.I'm sure that if it was officially declared that all material belongings were to be free from now on,all money would be thrown aside,and maybe for a while,people may be flooding to the stores in hope of bringing home a vast array of items.But when they obtain all the items that way,do you think anyone would even feel a sense of accomplishment in acquiring their material?Be it a lambugini or a sashimi feast.
What THEN would make you happy,when you have taken all you want from the store?Surely the only happiness you can await then is the happiness brought to you by sentimental things.And CAN you buy happiness?If all MATERIAL belongings were declared to be free,would you bother to accumilate your money?
I think the answer is obvious enough.
In accordance to what "will" said : "Think about this for a moment. Edward is rich but he is never happy. Edward's mother may not be rich but she is happy because she has happy memories of her family. Which is more important, family or money?"
If we were to do a comprehension on this, and we were asked to compare it, I would say that money could not buy happiness, but it is family that could bring it.
But strictly speaking, the fact that everyone over here has that many different views already suggests that each one of us has different view of matters.
It would be very untrue if we said that money cannot buy happiness. Think about it, when was the last time someone close to you bought you something that you really really like? Were you very happy? Or did you just say : "aiya.. not like it's family, just some stupid material made from the elements of the earth only what..". If anyone of you could say that you did the latter, then there is nothing to talk about, money cannot buy happiness. But as surely as the sun rises from the east, money can buy happiness - to a certain extend.
But also think about it from a different view. When was the last time you actually experienced love? Could money have bought it? Did you for a moment think that you could 'get hold' of the person with the money you had? Even the richest of the rich would never presume that people around him LOVE him for who he is. Why? Is it because he is just some sort of emo? Or is it because he understands that money would never be able to buy love?(Ask Mr Chia for more info. I'm sure he'll tell you more)
So therefore, money can buy you happiness - up to a certain extend (Think about little kids crying when they couldn't get what they want). But also, money cannot buy happiness - up to a certain extend. All of these heavily depends on each individual. I'm sure if you pass Alexander a PSP now, he'll be jumping over the moon. And I'm also sure that if you pass Mr Chia a girlfriend now..
Family is more important. You can be poor, but you can't live without a home or without anyone that you can fully trust or count on. Afterall, money is not a living thing. Though maybe it can save you from anything in the world, but it can't save you from real loneliness.
If you're rich, you're smart and you'll know that your friends are all bought, equivalent to -you're serving them. One day, you'll get tired and sick of fake friendships and love, which also equivalent to -failure in life. You don't even know who your real friends are anymore. They're only your money's bestfriend. Therefore, at the end of the day, humans still need a family to count on.
ironically,here we all are,descriminating money and all!Yet how easy exactly is it to stop being a disciple of money?
in release,the interesting thing in relation to money is that Tan Mei Ching chooses not to mention any significant detail of money,yet creating a tense atmosphere in the entire story anyway.
The lack of the mention of money tries to imply how insignificant the threat of money is considered in the story.Even so,a slight influence of money is mentioned when Philip mentions his need to forget the fence incident so that he could focus on his director's meeting the next day;which was part of his occupation that he required to earn his money.
This depicts the irony of the fact that money has become so natural to us that we even tend to overlook the danger of money despite the fact that it still has a significant impact on us.
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