Money and the Magic Tortoise
Jul. 4th, 2021 09:29 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
smokingbootMoney does strange things to people.
I used to study the I Ching; there was a hexagram called Nourishment/Jaws/The Corners of the Mouth. The first of the individual lines went like this: You let your magic tortoise go,and look at me with the corners of your mouth drooping. Misfortune.
What the line exemplifies is someone who has superior ability to get what they want/need (their 'nourishment') yet prefers to drool with envy at other people's stuff.
At the recent England/German match, some of our fans acted with customary shiteness. They booed the German national anthem and jeered at a little German girl who was crying when her team lost. This caught fire on social media where behaviour was even more repulsive, blood-curdling stuff.
As one might expect, the brave defender of Anne Frank mis-spelt her name.
However, not every Brit is a total knob-end. There is this:
https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/litte-girl?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=socpledgemobile&utm_content=litte-girl&utm_campaign=post-pledge-mobile&utm_term=WaGKZ3myV&fbclid=IwAR2wCrI-OK0ln4tdg6aMbp1Y2d-UxuAKFP1lbhUyzBd3NRmhgnpJPkXDv4g
An artist of my acquaintance got a bit odd about the whole thing; 'It's mad. The incongruity if those in poverty and those indulging their karma is mad. I know what you mean about the twats, but this is crazy [...] Anyway I think it's absurd.'
When I said I would feel just as indignant if it was his son, his answer was 'I'll get him to make a right song and dance of it. I could do with the money.
Do with the money? I'm sure he could, living in a flat next to Tooting Common, very nice. Not exactly starving in a garret then. It's one thing to be broke, one thing to be poor, one thing to want money, one thing to need money. None of these are anything to be ashamed of. But to resent someone else's money when you've got plenty of your own? Never a good look.
Said artist mate has just self-published a book of poetry, and because I support creatives if I can, I was going to buy his anthology.
I found myself holding back firstly because his poetry is OK but not so much to my taste that I would buy it on its own merits, secondly, madness is donating to a crowdfunder for a little girl, but sanity is buying his book?
He has sent me a private message saying 'Do you like it?' code for 'Have you bought it?' I have to laugh, clearly he has found his own magic tortoise again, his inner hustler remembering to smile. Smiling myself I say nothing but leave our conversation in the air, invisible words forming between us: 'No mate, you just lost £15 because you couldn't be gracious about someone else getting more than you. I mean you no harm, maybe I'll buy your book tomorrow.'
Yes, I know it's petty. No, I'm not nice.
Meanwhile, the fundraiser has reached over £30,000.
I used to study the I Ching; there was a hexagram called Nourishment/Jaws/The Corners of the Mouth. The first of the individual lines went like this: You let your magic tortoise go,and look at me with the corners of your mouth drooping. Misfortune.
What the line exemplifies is someone who has superior ability to get what they want/need (their 'nourishment') yet prefers to drool with envy at other people's stuff.
At the recent England/German match, some of our fans acted with customary shiteness. They booed the German national anthem and jeered at a little German girl who was crying when her team lost. This caught fire on social media where behaviour was even more repulsive, blood-curdling stuff.
As one might expect, the brave defender of Anne Frank mis-spelt her name.
However, not every Brit is a total knob-end. There is this:
https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/litte-girl?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=socpledgemobile&utm_content=litte-girl&utm_campaign=post-pledge-mobile&utm_term=WaGKZ3myV&fbclid=IwAR2wCrI-OK0ln4tdg6aMbp1Y2d-UxuAKFP1lbhUyzBd3NRmhgnpJPkXDv4g
An artist of my acquaintance got a bit odd about the whole thing; 'It's mad. The incongruity if those in poverty and those indulging their karma is mad. I know what you mean about the twats, but this is crazy [...] Anyway I think it's absurd.'
When I said I would feel just as indignant if it was his son, his answer was 'I'll get him to make a right song and dance of it. I could do with the money.
Do with the money? I'm sure he could, living in a flat next to Tooting Common, very nice. Not exactly starving in a garret then. It's one thing to be broke, one thing to be poor, one thing to want money, one thing to need money. None of these are anything to be ashamed of. But to resent someone else's money when you've got plenty of your own? Never a good look.
Said artist mate has just self-published a book of poetry, and because I support creatives if I can, I was going to buy his anthology.
I found myself holding back firstly because his poetry is OK but not so much to my taste that I would buy it on its own merits, secondly, madness is donating to a crowdfunder for a little girl, but sanity is buying his book?
He has sent me a private message saying 'Do you like it?' code for 'Have you bought it?' I have to laugh, clearly he has found his own magic tortoise again, his inner hustler remembering to smile. Smiling myself I say nothing but leave our conversation in the air, invisible words forming between us: 'No mate, you just lost £15 because you couldn't be gracious about someone else getting more than you. I mean you no harm, maybe I'll buy your book tomorrow.'
Yes, I know it's petty. No, I'm not nice.
Meanwhile, the fundraiser has reached over £30,000.
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no subject
Date: 2021-07-04 12:41 pm (UTC)An entirely imaginary construct.
Yet it dominates every facet of our inner and outer lives.
no subject
Date: 2021-07-05 07:27 am (UTC)And of course my response to Artist-Poet's prodding comes from taught attitudes to money; 1) Don't focus too much on someone else's and 2) Don't put your hand out unless you have to.
The code is much more extensive than that but even these basic breaches of it make me draw back. And I don't regard myself as particularly materialistic or even savvy.
no subject
Date: 2021-07-05 12:06 pm (UTC)