Is Money the Root of ALL Evil?

I honestly don’t know.  Although, enough evil is done in an attempt to gain more money.  I use the word ‘evil’ loosely as I’m not a “good vs evil” kind of person.  To me… it’s all good or it was until I realized I didn’t have quite enough money for what I want to do this morning.

I’ve recently had the opportunity to look back on my life, dissecting every decision, every choice that led up to another choice and on and on.  This is an exercise in stupidity mostly as who really knows if making different choices would have led to a different life.  We make choices, we adjust, we move on.  Or do we?  I’m fairly certain that no other choice would have led me to more money but part of that reason is because I’m not really comfortable with money.  We didn’t have any extra money growing up, things were difficult, but because of this, I decided to never live that way.  VOWED to myself, I never would which then put me in a vulnerable position (as deciding you MUST have something always does).  I had been a nanny for a period of time for a wealthy family with a large number of boys.  They had lots of money and seemed happy although, I did notice that shopping was part of that.  Being able to shop can make us happy (temporarily).  The problem with shopping is that there is always something else you need or want.  Something else that will make you feel fulfilled… temporarily.  And then it can become the ‘where’ are you shopping as well as ‘what’ you are purchasing.  I had somehow got it into my own head that my clothing should come from one particular high-end store and no others.  However, I always felt like an interloper in the higher end stores, so, therefore, almost never shop and when I do I come home with random things I don’t need:  a pair of thigh high boots and hiking socks.  Riiight.  So, what is this?  In truth, I almost never enter the mall or stores anymore because there will surely be something I think that I MUST have and will try to figure out a way to get ‘said’ object only to end up regretting the purchase or will love it (aka: juicer) and use it every day for 2 weeks and then watch it collect dust.

I often wonder if people that have all the money they could want… are happy because they certainly all don’t look happy.

I posed this question to my psychiatrist friend (who is well known in his field and a person I trust to give me a straight answer on things – even if I do secretly wonder if I’m being analyzed in the process).  His reply was something like:  “Most of my clients are wealthy, and they come to me because they are unhappy in their relationships.  I have a few poorer clients and they come to me because they are depressed about not having money… but, they are happy with their lives and relationships.”  Curious.

So again, is money the root of all evil?  Well, what does evil mean anyway?  Dictionary.com defines it as:

The devil? high taxes? (I’d say that one is accurate which then leads me to wondering who is in charge of taxing us… yes, agreed, those people are definitely evil), a supernatural force? a nasty bathroom smell??  Okay, well, let’s address the first one:

1.  The Devil.  Sadly, I don’t believe the devil takes money, checks, cash, credit so no… no amount of money can help you with that one.

2.  High Taxes.  Umm… I believe that might actually help you since our government is whacked enough to think that you should pay more taxes the less you make (of course this changes daily so I may be wrong about that).  So, having more money (like oodles more) might help you afford taxes (and insurance… but don’t get me started on that).

3.  Supernatural Forces.  Again, I’m thinking this one might be like the devil.  I mean, what would a supernatural force do with money?  Could they possibly use it to buy extra supernatural powers?  Maybe hire a “make objects move” tutor?  I don’t know, that one sounds suspect, I’m going to have to say, No.  Money won’t help you with Supernatural Forces.

4.  Nasty Bathroom Smells.  Yes, money can definitely help you with this.  So this one wins fo-sho.  You could buy flowers, cans of chemicals to kill not only the nasty smells but yourself and any other living creature nearby (which, btw, will end up costing you more money), you could put in more ventilation… maybe even a window… you could work on stinking up all of the outdoors for virtually no money whatsoever.

So, I have to say, that even though, I myself could use a little more money to get where I need to go… not much (but that is all relative to each individual), I still don’t think it would make me any happier.  Having less money means I need to be smarter.  And, being smarter makes me feel good… about me! For free.

Thoughts? On money? Evil? Nasty Bathroom Smells? 🙂  Please refrain from making me vomit if you insist on talking about ‘nasty bathroom smells’.