Tag: Values

Money for nothing and your kicks for free. I heard that this band was in dire straits but they seem to be doing okay to me.

Prayer for the weak:

Lord, today’s music sucks. Please take Bieber, Beyonce and Swift and give us another British like music invasion. Hey, we’ll even take one from Canada. Please dear Lord hear my prayer.

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I keep reading or hearing about some guy here in Canada that wrote a book called Value(s). Interestingly boring I am told. Well here is my take on values:

“Take the word value… please. How I hate this word. There
are so many variations to the theme that surround this word that
any smart-minded non-English-speaking immigrant to our
country would think twice about trying to learn or understand the
English language. For example, an individual or group’s perception
of worth, based upon personal or collective experiences in a
shared environment can only define or measure value. Value is
illusive, as there are more perceptions of value out there are there
are cars on the road. Let me try to exemplify exactly what I mean here:

In 2005, I picked up my dear ole mother’s car: a 1979
Mercury Zephyr, something akin to a Falcon or Fairmont—Ford
only knows. My mother could not drive anymore. She was
ninety-one, for heaven’s sake. The car had about 56,000 kilometers
on the O.D. Mint condition! Lime green with a sickly,
yellowed tan interior. Now the market value of that car in 1979 was $6,500.
Twenty-six years later the book value was about zilch. The
insured value—who knows, but the assessed value was about
$3,000 and climbing, as long as it didn’t disintegrate during the
long hard winters. Its value would continue to rise in value as
long as its condition remains, well, valuable.

Obviously my mother had considerable sentimental value for
that automobile. As I pulled away from the big city for the drive
back to my hometown, I came to understand the hereditary value
of this gift to me and the intrinsic value of the trust she placed in
me to take good care of Betsy.

I made it back home in one piece although the water pump
went out around some godforsaken country hick town.
Between that and thinking about the local Elvis sightings, I
was beginning to ponder the meaning of life and the mechanical
value of the car, the emotional value that this machine may
have had, and its effect on my own sense of value and
well-being.

Arriving home I thought about its economical value as it had
taken over a tank of gas to cover the three hundred miles from
the really big city to my hometown. Had I been taken for a ride?
Were there aspects of this car that were known only to my
mother, the parish priest, her hairdresser, and the bagger at her
local supermarket? I had to contemplate its utility value considering
the other two cars I had. Yet, thinking of my dear ole mother and somewhat excited about the possibility of getting perhaps $3,000 for the car’s
assessed value, I thought hmmm, but quickly shook any thought
of that out of my mind, for if I valued my life I dared not even
think about selling dear ole Betsy.

Trying to define value can be problematic, which in itself is
an extremely overused word. It’s like common sense. Something
that is taken for granted yet is extremely rare in today’s world.
And trying to make sense out of value—as in “What are your
values?” as opposed to someone else’s values—is like an academia
nut trying to make sense out of common sense and coming
up with pure nonsense.”

Taken from:

I Thought I’d Died and Gone To Heaven

An irreverent look at growing up in a parochial, conservative environment in pre-woke era Toronto of the 1950s and 60s.