Spock’s right again IMO. Yet there must be those times when having is worth everything.
Matthew 13:
I’m trying to consider this psychologically. Is there something I could want that would warrant sacrificing everything for? What is this “pearl” of great value? Would I finally come to view it as “just a stone”?
Is there a quality of existence that is possible for me that I could become aware of that would warrant sacrificing my piece of mind in order to acquire?
Can this wanting that Spock speaks of be indicative of anything more than an illusion that is bound to grow stale? Is it possible it could result in being even more than I imagine?
As Jalal al-Din Rumi once said, “There is counterfeit gold because real gold exists.”
I wonder: is there real emotional gold beyond the fool’s gold or this pearl of great worth that justifies selling your pearls? Is it psychologically worth the gamble to be open enough to find out or is it better just to stick with good scotch?
Have you ever read Foucault’s Pendulum by Umberto Eco?
If not, then I highly reccomend it. I just finished reading it today and at the conclusion of the book he adresses this question in an very interesting way. (Alas it is the key to the whole book, and would be a spoiler to discuss.)
No I haven’t read it and thanks for the tip. The idea is an intriguing one and am curious if others had thought on it. At one time in our usual lives we can value something so highly that we’d give up everything and even kill for it and a year later, it would be worthless to us. Yet, a person can value something that just increases in value. This idea is not only secular but in Christianity and I imagine in the other traditions like Buddhism which maybe Kow could elaborate on.
Heck, even a Vulcan like Spock has thought on it so there must be something to it.
PS. I see an ad on the bottom of the page for a “Free Akoya Necklace”. So much for selling all your pearls when we can get a necklace free. Ya gotta love it.
