The Value of Anything

“…Now and then, I get insecure
From all the pain, I'm so ashamed…

…To all your friends, you're delirious
So consumed in all your doom
Trying hard to fill the emptiness
The pieces gone, left the puzzle undone
Is that the way it is

I am beautiful no matter what they say
Words can't bring me down
I am beautiful in every single way…”

~ lyrics from "Beautiful" by Christina Aguilera

...I'm back online. Yes, it's been a minute. Matter of fact, I wrote this months ago, just never posted but I found some motivation. Being willing is no longer acceptable...I must do. That'll be the next post lol!

So who determines the value of anything? The value of the dollar is based on gold, which was decided upon by our forefathers that originally created paper money since it was easier to carry around than blocks of gold. Who determines the value of gold? The value of a house is determined by the value of the property the house is built on combined with the size and structure of the house. But who determines these values?

No matter what you are evaluating, the result always goes back to a person or people that determined the original value that goes into the order of importance. In different countries, what is considered valuable differs as the societal norms create the scorecard. One country values family over wealth while another country values wealth over nature and still another values nature over everything. At the end of the day, it is man that establishes and assigns worth. So when it comes to us as individuals, who determines our value? What are we basing these conclusions of worth upon? Who made the scorecard?

The civilization we live in says you should value yourself, have self esteem, and you shouldn’t compare yourself to others but how can you place value if not by comparing to something of less or more value? As hard as we try to say we create our own significance and assign our own importance there is no way to do that w/o factoring in the thoughts and opinions of others.

I started looking at all of this when I noticed I felt as if my stock was sinking and I as person was in a recession. I decided to analyze what causes the rise and fall of my personal market? I realized as hard as I tried to not base the way I see myself upon the opinions of others... I was. I noticed when I believed the people I esteem most in my world valued me, my stock rose and when I felt those I valued most condemned my plotted position, my internal determination of worth plummeted. What I mean be plotted position is the exact point in life where I stand when taking account. This position is based upon all of the decisions made, paths chosen, frame of mind and all that has brought me to stand at that very latitude and longitude of existence. Each plotted point of life can be directly linked to the previous move and the next decision.

If you look at the person that believes they are superior to all and they are the only one that sees them this way, they are considered mentally unstable. No one will take them seriously. When you look at the person that devalues themselves as much as any can, they are considered clinically depressed and again, no one places much stock in their determination of wealth as their previous assessments of self deem them incompetent to make such a decision.

Many people respect status, education, wealth and success but should the value of a person be based on accomplishment alone? If a person has the highest of degrees, accumulated the most wealth but is a narcissistic tyrant, doesn’t that lower their overall rating? Again, it depends on what scale they are being weighed.

It’s difficult realizing the majority of how you rate and see yourself is based on your subconscious social construction. Coming to grasp that you’ve used someone else’s assignment of value to judge yourself can actually be enlightening. While we can’t control the world around us and have to operate within societal boundaries, maybe we should create our own individual value system. We should look at what we as an individual estimate most important regardless of what those around us suggest.