Values

This concept has been bothering me for a while--I'd like to know what you who read this think.

A lot of value has been placed on material goods--things we're used to having to pay for [like cheese, furniture, and marble countertops]--
while many services have a fee associated with them [electricity, massage, dentistry, and taxi rides]--
In practice, once someone decides to start charging for something, it's value is determined by the invisible hand of economics--supply and demand.

However, there are a lot of things we haven't placed a monetary value on that are very worthwhile [like the air we breathe, social cohesiveness, the value of free speech, etc.]
and I'm wondering if we should assign a value # to them, in order to give these topics fair measure against economically valued items. I mean, if someone intends to extinguish a species, I want to know what it's worth to them.

I have yet to see some other discussion about this, so let's have it out here...

Off-limits topic	Economic vested interest
Breath of fresh air	$1.00
Peace and quiet	$5.00
First amendment right to free speech	$25
Snake River salmon migration route	$100
Free internet	$1000
A kiss from my sweetie	$10,000 (if they brushed their teeth)

Of course these are made up numbers. To get a real idea of the values to assign things, a token economy would need to be set up and lots of trading done.

But that's the basic notion. What do you think?

Tough Shit

Tough Shit

would be a pretty cool name for a line of durable---

outerwear,

underwear,

camping gear,

etc.

Pretty much anything durable could be sold under the label "Tough Shit" and it would catch on quickly.

Amid the Noise and Haste

Got to a box while cleaning, and inside was my high school yearbook.  

I know my high school experience wasn't the greatest of my life.  I was in a state of angst up to transferring to a new school in 11th grade, and had no friends for the first 3 months there.  But since then, time has passed.  I sat looking back at the experience with a sense of...not nostalgia.

Nostalgia is a feeling on the surface.  What I got was something so much deeper.  Reading the comments people had written, I began to embody the self I was in the 1990's.   This dusty part of my memory was like one of the boxes, just waiting there for me to delve into.  I've gotten this kind of memory before.  Every memory has its own distinct flavor, and I could taste what it felt like to be that kid.  It was refreshing.  I began at once to want to go running, and to do ridiculous amounts of math.  

So I can see why people sigh longingly over their high school years.  I think some part of my brain has transferred all these memories into a 'good' folder.  Egocentrically, I can say 'this is part of what made ME, so of course it's good.'  However, even stuff I went through 2 years ago, or 6 months ago, have their own memory-taste.  Call it place-ness or once-ness...whatever.  I am not in the best place I've ever been in my life (I mean it's okay...), yet I expect the overall sensations of this moment will seem good when I look back on them 10 years from now.

What you eat.

During the week sometime I began running on low energy.  During this time I felt like buying a big screen television and voting for Ron Paul.  What the...?!  It appears I'm highly susceptible to advertising when I'm exhausted.

When I woke up this morning, however, I was alert.  My senses were heightened, and even the slightest movements caught my attention.  Usually I wake up pretty alert, but this was different.  My vision and hearing were acute.  I felt more...like I was prey.  

Then I remembered what we ate for dinner last night: Steak.  It was as if all the body chemicals from the meat had entered my system, and I was feeling things the meat felt before becoming food.  Alert to predators, and looking for my herd.

Something I heard about Druidic folklore said that when you eat of an animal, you take on its traits in some way.  What a  trip! 

Is there any research about this?  And is there a practical use for it?  I smell a great conspiracy theory creeping up!  If we could be kept exhausted and eating lots of bovine meat, we would all be susceptible to advertising and act like herd animals.  

Oh, wait...

Shrink to Fit

The art of rearranging things to fit into a space.

If there was a word to match that definition, I would have entitled my blog that.

I've been, more or less, cleaning my way through the house.  Currently I'm finding clever ways to stack boxes in the basement and bedroom, since it's easier than thinking about what to throw away.  Generally this process will result in a few extra square-feet of space to stack something else.

Would it be called "puzzle-boxing?"

One might suggest getting rid of the things would be more practical, since this would result in more space, and (more importantly) more time to do things other than puzzle-boxing the junk in the basement.  Yes, dear reader, but what would I do then?  At least with this mind-taxing task, I will be sure to have something engaging to do. . . forever.

Got to run now, stuff's a-waiting.