Money can’t buy me love. Try telling my Patong-dwelling friend that.
But seriously, if the shambolic organisation of the paid-for Sydictive party and the comparative success of the free Karon Electronic Music Festival teaches us anything, it is that songwriters Ray Henderson and The Beatles were maybe onto something.
Sometimes it’s quite literally money for nothing (Dire, I know).
Song titles aside, you can’t put a price on love, or fun or enjoyment for that matter. Although resorts, hotels and a consumerist society is likely to read that idiom in a certain way, one can also interpret the pithy lyrics to mean that to love to do something has nothing to do with cost. It is priceless.
One doesn’t have to pay extortionate amounts of money to have a good time. One doesn’t need to attend a B3,000 ++ dinner, or peacock it up at an ‘exclusive’ party. The happiest New Year celebrations on the island were likely to be had by those who carefully chose with whom to spend it.
But unfortunately money makes the world go round, and quite often serves as a literal currency in which individuals choose to value a person metaphorically.
However, by equating a person’s worth by monetary means, this will forever limit one’s own measure of enjoyment by a materialistic yardstick.
As 2013 starts, it is important to remember the important things in life: Friends, family, happiness, satisfaction, pride.
Add to that a cleansing, all-encompassing sea breeze on an early morning after a stressful night; a smile from a stranger after an argument with another; a dalliance, a dance, an embrace, laughter, relief.
This is life.
This is important.
Happy New Year readers.