4/12/2007

Appropriate sense of proportion

Appropriate sense of proportion I worked up this morning with a few old songs ringing in my head. The first one goes like this, 'If you want it, here it is come and get it. But you gotta hurry costs it may not last.' The second one was by the rock group the Monkeys, and it goes like this, 'Money, money, money. Must be money. It's a mad, mad world.' How could one explain why people can correlate the same thing to different things? For instance you point to a dog and a child will scream 'dog.' You point it to a teenager, and he will shout 'pet.' And you point it to a foreign worker, he will shout 'food.' So don't be surprised when you show someone a $600,000 bill and the person shouts 'peanut.' It is all about circumstances and experience in life. Some people count the number of zeros behind the number and some count the zeros in front of it. Once they get use to them, it becomes second nature. $30 is huge to someone who is used to get by with $260 a month. That is more than 10%. A few million is small change to those who are used to the numerous zeros behind the number. So the recipient of the $30 will be very grateful. But the recipient of the millions may not. For $1, I have been worshipped like a god by a bicycle cab peddlar. The ride was $1 but I gave him $2 instead. He immediately dropped on his knees and prayed to me like he was praying to Buddha. That extra $1 was a windfall to him. This story only tells the right sense of proportion at different level of society. It is a different world to different people. It is a mad mad world.

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