“Nowadays people know the price of everything and the value of nothing” ~ Oscar Wilde

I knew someone who appeared obsessed with the price tag attached to everything, and when I say everything, I mean everything. He couldn’t look at, let alone enjoy, a meal, an item of furniture or a house, without wanting to know how much it cost. Once he knew he seemed intent on working out whether the said item fell into the bargain category or not.

Now I, on the other hand, can’t tell you the cost of anything, even if it’s the day after I bought it. This missing memory link that I have is certainly not on account of my membership in the top bracket of affluence, or anywhere near that. At the time of purchase I will spend ages weighing up value for money within the parameters of personal appeal and my budget, but once the deed is done, the monetary facts float off into the ether.

So it is with some bemusement that I contemplated these two extremes and the real meaning of value.

A friend of mine was given a sapphire gemstone. It was so dark it looked black. But I happen to find pale blue sapphires really beautiful. She painstakingly explained to me that the darker the sapphire, the more valuable it is. The value debate again, I thought. Unless you are buying with the intention of resale, what is the purpose of prizing a ‘price tag’, especially if the object doesn’t ‘float your boat’ as it were?

How many of us adorn our homes and ourselves with society’s, and the ever-yelling markets’ stamp of aspiration approval while we turn a deaf ear to our own heart’s true desire and value? It’s okay to know the cost of everything, but do you really know the value? Does one or more of your senses truly enjoy what you possess or encounter?

True value is when your heart sings “Yes, I like!” whether the item costs two cents, two hundred dollars or falls into the bargain category.

“Everything that can be counted does not necessarily count; everything that counts cannot necessarily be counted” ~ Albert Einstein