Great Dilemma : When Money Comes Around

Growing up in what we could call a “normal” family, – not poor but definitely not wealthy – , money was never a matter before the economic crisis that spread through Europe in 2007 and 2008. Then my parents started to pay a bit more attention to the cost of things they bought.

Now, I’ve reached adulthood, and I’m starting to have money responsabilities : bank account, payment card, checks, etc. My 18th birthday was about a month ago, and for that special occasion I received 100€ from my godmother. I thank her for that, but in the meantime, that insidious question appeared : should I spend it on things I like or want, or should I put in in my bank account and let it sleep there for a while ?! If I was to spend it, wouldn’t I become crazy about it, wouldn’t I become a superficial materialistic kind of person ?

A few months ago, I came across that quote : “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely” (Lord Acton). Now, it appears that money could be that kind of power, which is also quite obvious, because we live in a capitalistic, globalized world in which leaders are in some cases at the feet of lobbyists.

When I thought about spending that money, my first thought was to buy sport clothes, so I can exercise better and more, which meant I could be fitter and feel better about myself. But then, second thought : wouldn’t I be driven to use overexercise as a way to punish myself, only to be relieved by the dopamine at the end of the workout?! Would I use this money in a great way then ? It could please myself and make me feel socially great but in the same time hurt me. Great dilemma.

Anyway, what I found is that our relationship to money has grown more and more difficult, with the dematerializing (is this a word?) of money : when you could touch it and feel all the bills in your hand before, it’s now lines of 1s and 0s encoded you can change by putting your card into a payment machine. What this means is easy to understand : the value of money isn’t perceived the same way. I found a great TED talk on that topic, which I happend find without actually looking for it : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VB39Jo8mAQ

It’s the story of a monopoly game in which the kids change their behaviors and game strategy when they are confronted to real money.

 

Thanks for reading !

And I lived to Tell the Tale

Everybody’s life is different, and some struggle more, some know more obstacles than others. But I often hear people who overcome those and they say their struggle made them more human, it empowered them in a way.

To put it in a nutshell, their experience was enriching.

What I would want to share today, with you and with the whole world, is that we are all Humans. Human beings. Being Human. And being Human also means being perfectible, improvable. 

Being Human just can’t mean being perfect, but some of us try their hardest to be that perfect person. This leads to the struggle to be perfect, and that’s where obstacle come in the way.

And I can tell you today, that I, as a teenager, being quite idealistic, I tried to reach perfection too. But it has had a cost : it nearly killed me, and it took part of my health away.

Don’t try to be perfect, we’re “only humans after all” ( beautiful song here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3wKzyIN1yk )

–  That which does not kill us makes us stronger –

Friedrich Nietzsche

 

 

Aside

Re-blogging 1O1

HELLO THERE !

As you can see, I’ve written two articles today (Oh, inspiration…) and my only will is to continue again, so I’m thinking about all the articles I want to write.

First, I always find a title for what I want to write BEFORE actually starting writing it, which makes that I have a lot of article possibilities, but not always the time to write them (so, yes, I have a list full of titles in my notes app on my phone…)

The next articles will come in a few days I hope, I’ve got a lot to make you discover about.

Stay tuned, get updated, and be curious !

Border

Today’s prompt : Border 

I’m very happy today to share today’s prompt, something I haven’t done for a very long time and it’s a part of why I’m so happy do retry this writing exercise.

We’re in a a world where borders have always been a problem. Since the ancient times, kingdoms have always had the will to push their borders accross another country and to invade them.

Religion was helping during Middle Age, as religions and civil wars spread across the Old Continent.

Asia wasn’t spared either during all the conflicts between China and Japan.

The two World Wars are also an example of this, Belgium borders didn’t count anymore for  the german army who used that country to go to France. Hitler, with the Anschluss, invaded Poland.

And the same things repeat again and again, to the world we know today, and with the migrants crisis all over the world.

Formal Songwriter

Everyone knows, “music is life” for the majority of the Earth’s inhabitants.

Created from the very beginning, music has always taken a major place in a civilization’s culture. Homo Sapiens, Homo Neanderthalensis and the people from those early civilization are the ones who started playing music, often with bone-caved flutes, but mankind have never cesed to try different rythms and sounds, making discoveries about how the sound is created, and so how the instruments must be built.

Apart from birds, whales and a few other which we know, according to science, use a kind of primitive music to communicate, humans is the only “developed” species that have made music. The special features for which we continue to make music over the centuries, is that it’s made only to be a form of art, and so to be “esthetic” even if some artists consider they don’t make music for it to be esthetic).

Then, we created lyrics, used our own voices to be a new instrument, each voice being very unique, and guiding words through melody.

It amazes me how humans have this possibility, this creativity wide enough to always be able to find new rythms, new lyrics, new themes, new topics to sing about.

musicpicture by dbclipart.com

Overweights get eating disorders too

One common belief is to say that anorexics are always (too) thin and that bulimics are only fat girls that eat too much.

Because yes, as you know, guys have no place in eating disorder representation. And that’s the first shame here about it. Actually, even if the major proportion of people who have EDs are girls, guys also experiment these illnesses. To give figures, there’s 1 out of 10 males in sufferers. And the open-minded me is really troubled by this fact, as we know for instance anorexia nervosa is the most deadly mental disorder. This under-representation of male sufferers is terrible and we need to fight against that. Anyone who suffered from an eating disorder knows what I’m talking about. And if I was a guy, I don’t think I’d like someone to consider I’m only dieting when my attitude towards food (and myself) puts me in danger, that this someone doesn’t believe that I’ve got an ED just because of my gender. Men get eating disorders too.

Now, I’m a girl, and I experienced an eating disorder. I haven’t been diagnosed but with some distance now I can tell that those few month in my life had been my worst nightmare, and that I was probably struggling with an eating disorder. The only thing is, when I just look at it, at some point I think “Well, you can’t have had an ED, you’re far too fat…”.  And I actually was at the beginning, until I dropped 10kgs and got to a “normal” weight. Overweights get eating disorders too. And no one thinks about them. That’s the second shame of people’s misconception about EDs. Some researchers, clinicians, psychiatrists start to consider overweights as people who can possibly have an ED, but unluckily those doctors aren’t enough to change people’s view of it. I wish at the time I got ill that some doctor, someone, told me I was really struggling with some ED. Unfortunately no one did, but you who read this post, you hold a great power to make them reconsider how they think about eating disorder sufferers. You have that power, because today, you can talk about it to your family, friends, relatives and help spread the word.

Overweights get eating disorder too.

Thank you.

Daily Prompt : 1984

You’re locked in a room with your greatest fear. Describe what’s in the room

That’s gonna be a very short post, as there’s not a lot to describe about what you can see in your own room that can frighten you.

In the room, my bed. A double bed, more precisely. On its left, a wardrobe and on the right, a big mirror. It’s the night, curtains are shut down, only shadows are to be seen. I lock the door and go silently to bed, looking for a little warmth. I lay there for a few minutes and then I see something silent, but moving in my room’s bathroom. Here it is. The thief. Now my greatest fear has taken place. A thief, holding a gun is in my room. Whoah. And I’m locked there, with no possibilities of going out. I’ll be fake asleep and we’ll see what happens, hoping that nothing goes wrong.

Daily Prompt : Trick or Trick ? (I’d say Trick…)

Let’s imagine it’s Halloween, and you just ran out of candy. If the neighborhood kids (or anyone else, really) were to truly scare you, what trick would they have to subject you to?

So let’s imagine it’s Halloween, and, sadly, I run out of candy…. Well, first I never have candy so I can’t really run out of it…

But let’s say I love sweets, then if they were to scare me, thoses little monsters, I guess I could play their game and say ” I’m so sorry guys, I don’t have candies…”, ” Then if you don’t we trick you and the Great Werewolf will come after you” they would reply. How cute they were, in their Hall oween costumes! I’d spend the night in my bed thinking about candies and laughing about that Great Werewolf threat and if only I saw a shadow in my bedroom, even if it’s some light from outside against my curtains, I’m sure I’ll be under my blanket, dying of fear for the rest of the night !

I’ll catch you, Werewolf!

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