Money

It’s funny how there is this doublethink about money in our society. On every corner you are told that money is not important for your happiness, that you should not live for money and so on. At the same time everyone is working their ass off to get as much money as possible. Or they buy lottery tickets hoping to get a lot of money. It’s all about money. Which is funny, because in fact what everybody really wants is to be happy. And they say money can’t buy you that. Which is not true, because you can buy a lot of freedom with money. And freedom is what makes me happy. And I’m not the only one. So money can make you happy. Besides, how else would you measure your success? I mean MEASURE. You can always say you gained a lot of experience, learned a lot, had a lot of fun. But that doesn’t say much. In many cases those are just words used when people are trying to justify their useless lives. When money is the M in SMART. It’s a good way to compare yourself to others using a commonly accepted measurement. “I am more experienced than you” – is easy to object and in fact everyone will object. “My salary is higher than yours. My house is more expensive than yours. I have more money on my savings account.” – no room for objection.

Here’s a good song about money:


Timeline: 11 May 1986 – My mother, my sister and I fly to Saratov trying to escape radiation. There is a radiation control when we arrive to Saratov. They measured an acceptable level in all three of us, but we had to report to the city hospital the next day for more thorough control.