When we ponder the most meaningful elements that constitute a truly prosperous life, we must look beyond the narrow confines of financial affluence. While money can undoubtedly be a powerful enabler, allowing access to opportunities and resources, it is ultimately a means rather than an end in itself. The wellspring of authentic wealth flows from the immeasurable treasures of health, time, and freedom.
Good health is the bedrock upon which all other aspects of wealth are built. It is the catalyst that allows us to fully engage with the richness of existence, to embrace each day with vigor, and to relish the profound beauty found in routine physical activities that the infirm can only longingly observe. Good health births opportunity — the opportunity to live, to love, to experience, to grow. It is the renewable spigot from which the connoisseurs of life may drink deeply.
The oft-overlooked commodity of time is equally vital in defining meaningful prosperity. For what use is amassing worldly riches if one perpetually lacks the time to truly savor them? The wealthiest person, from a temporal perspective, is he who has mastered the art of savoring each passing moment, rolling it over the tongue like the rarest of vintage wines. It is those who remain ever-cognizant that time is the most fleeting of non-renewable resources.
Underpinning both health and time is the fundamental birthright of freedom — freedom of thought, freedom to chart one’s own destiny, freedom to experience the myriad kaleidoscope of life’s vast offerings. These liberties, when earnestly upheld, are the fountainhead from which our truest wealth eternally flows. No currency can purchase the profound emancipation of an unfettered soul soaring towards transcendent possibility.
And where, then, does money find its place among these sublime elements? In its highest role, the value of money lies in cultivating and maximizing our health, harvesting quality time, and preserving the inviolable sanctity of freedom. Used judiciously, money procures resources that heal and strengthen the body. It allows us to construct enriching experiences with those we love. It can open doors that expand the horizons of liberty. Money is like water from a wellspring — properly channeled, it quenches our thirst for fulfillment.
But like any powerful tool, money’s utility depends solely on the philosophical framework in which it is contextualized. Revered for its own sake as an end goal, it metastasizes from a lubricant into an insidious adhesive — ensnaring its adherents, stealing away their health through stress and neglect, draining their time on the ceaseless treadmill of accumulation, binding their spirit in a gilded cage of conspicuous consumption. Here, money becomes the cruel jester laughing at those shackled by their own greed.
The wisest understand that money is valued not by being zealously chased and hoarded, but by the virtuous application of its fruits. For what avails the wealthiest plutocrat entombed with his riches if he has willfully surrendered the truest forms of prosperity — vibrant health, ample time with loved ones, and the unbridled freedom to revel in life’s grandest experiences? He is akin to the parched millionaire who possesses all the world’s mineral rights yet unwittingly squanders his infinite liquid assets.
Money facilitates certain aspects of life — health, leisure time, and autonomy — yet it cannot intrinsically provide or sustain what truly matters; money is a means, not an end unto itself, ephemeral and lacking inherent value. It is at best a privileged guest, an emissary granting its holder access to a larger realm of possibility. But it is not, and can never be, the sovereign ruling our contented lives. That honor belongs only to the immutable currencies of human spirit, intentional living, and soulful fulfillment. For when we breathe our last breath, it is not the clink of coins we yearn to hear, or our node/miner/hardware running bitcoin core but the reverberating depth of lives amazingly lived, savored, and wildly free.
It’s an exciting time to be alive. Cherish it :)
4/20/24
Conor Jay Chepenik
