Gaga Over Green

In life, there are always going to be those set of unanswerable questions that you are constantly battling with, be it with yourself or with others.
For instance – Beauty vs. brains? When is thin, too thin? Friends or lovers? Chocolate chip or strawberry sprinkles?
However, the oldest one in the book is perhaps one we all know too well.
*drum roll*
Money or happiness?

It’s okay for most of us to wonder why both of these undeniable factors can’t co-exist. However, truth is, they rarely do.
Some ‘scientists’* seem to believe that money can buy happiness. Some even go further to say that money is happiness, and happiness is love and therefore, you have one of life’s most bewildering mysteries solved.
But according to some unrecognized believers, that logic is all wrong.
To put money and happiness in the same room is the same as putting a baby antelope and a bunch of cheetahs together. There is the slim possibility otherwise, but mostly, one is going to cancel out the other. In this case, I guess we know which is which.
And if you don’t, then you’re a bigger believer than I am.

Following a conversation I had with a friend the other day, we got into a discussion (which was actually a heated argument, which was just pretending to be a mild discussion) about what we would choose, as we got older- Money or Love?
“Money” he said, nonchalantly, leaving me unsurprised. “Money can buy me happiness and a good life”.
Silly, silly me!
And here I was thinking love could rule over the world.
“I disagree,” I said boldly, although fearing what lay ahead of me. “I’d choose love”
He laughed. I couldn’t tell whether it was a loud, shrill laughter, one that erupted in my ear drums, making me wish I was deaf or a sly, sarcastic, short ha-ha that made me want to be equally deaf, like the first time.
Honestly I couldn’t tell which one it was because we were chatting online.
He continued, “Would you marry a man who was poor or rich?”
I thought for the smallest second, “A man I loved?”

We never finished that argument. It rioted on into the aesthetics- of how money could buy you things, and things can make you happy. And if you didn't have enough money, then you’d be sad and incomplete and oh well, poor.
He also didn't forget to mention that money was the main motive behind all our actions and our existence.
“It's the reason you’re going to college… so that you can get a good job, earn lots of money and whilst supporting yourself, enjoy life”
I don’t know about anyone else, but the thought of that makes me queasy.
Money is the reason behind our existence?
Money is paper with a number on it.
The only reason it has value, is because we deemed it so. That’s why paper money is different from the blank sheet lying right here on my desk, with the same numbers marked on it.
It sounds like a stupid, lazy idea to me. Paper and some numbers and a great minting machine! That's all it took to determine the rest of our lives?

The important question is…why would we give something that can be ripped apart so easily, all of us?
(True, it was a great way to fix the flaws in the barter system but otherwise?)
Isn’t it a banner across everyone’s head? A slogan to everyone’s life?
It's the reason why most of us wake up every morning and one of the major things most of us think of before going to sleep at night.
It should be easily proven with scientific* laws, that money is the engine, and we are the car. And even if you had all the other parts, without it, you’d be pretty much stuck in a garage all your life, or in the middle of the road, waiting for someone with a better engine to help you out.
It's the reason why most of us are who we are today.
Tired, angry, unsatisfied… over exhausted and empty.
Most of us.

The rest of us, try to stay away from paper cuts and pay checks.
It’s lovely to have money, but I’d rather have happiness instead, why thank you!
As long as there’s air within my lungs, I’d like to do things I love to do and not be ruled by the rest of the robot population, who go gaga every time they see green.
Maybe I’m too young and too stupid to understand the importance of money right now, but in that case, I hope I never grow old.
As one of my favorite songs by a great band called ‘Third Eye Blind’ goes,
‘You say I’m a dreamer. But I say you’re a non-believer’.


*- arrogant, self righteous people I am unfortunately friends with
*- unpublished theories by these arrogant, self righteous people