Money.Power.Respect. 

But is that what you really need in life? All three? Or will one of them make do. Or does obtaining one lead to the others...? All questions that seem to become more and more apparent as I get older.

When you're young, a couple bucks for lunch seems like all the money in the world. Doing chores to get an allowance was the norm in my household. Vacuum the rugs, clean the stairs, empty the trash, weed the garden. A days work might land you a cool forty bucks. Step and repeat, and if you save up, you had almost two bills by the end of the month! 

It's funny how that same mentality of always wanting more, has stuck with me.you.us. We as a society (American) never seem fully satisfied when it comes to the monetary aspects of our lives. We can always do more, make more. And for what? To scrimp and save for a big purchase at the end of the year? For that vacation to a new destination that we've been dying to go to? Or to help out a friend when they need it most. Or to donate to a family much less fortunate than our own. 

When's the last time you helped out a stranger, be it financially, by smiling, asking how their day is going - and giving a damn about the answer.

To me, there's happiness and then there's money. One is so much different than the other, one stands alone. One determines your life's worth, while one forces you to define those lines in which one exists. I think it's crazy that there's even a question as to which word I'm talking about at this very moment.

My boy threw me this question when we were a midst our graduation last year (crazy that it has been a year already): if happiness was the currency (instead of money), what would you do to get paid for the rest of your life?

Too many a-times I've spent wasting breath over money. People are funny about money. 

My dad used to tell me that there are the have, and there are the have-nots. He would tell me that the divide between the rich and poor is only growing larger. At the time I just thought he was talking about two groups of people physically getting further and further apart from each other. Ironically enough, gentrification and things like that make the distance a physical reality but that's a different issue.

I see money as something that's fluid. When you can, you give to those who have less than you. But there's a fine line between giving what you can and giving more than you can afford. 

My mindset is, what's the point of bogarting everything if you're not going to share it with people you care about? Everything ends, so what's the point of having all the green in the world when everything fades to black. I'll wait.

keep it balanced.