Life Case

All money really is, is a way to buy material things. Sure, it's

important, but not close to how important the people we love are. They

are where real happiness comes from, not from little green pieces of

paper. Happiness is not having what you want, it's wanting what you have.dkjasnda Personally, I choose wine by the pictures on their labels. Some are winners, some are binners, but I give them all a shot. I've dined at the most expensive restaurant in Melbourne where the waiter searched the underground cellar for some incredible wine for us to enjoy. It was fantastic wine, but I've had $10 bottles just as good. I don't ever want to be the kind of person that feels as though their value is a direct result of their drink, handbag label or postcode. I hope I never am. I'd rather be valued for my contribution, or intelligence, or creativity, or ingenuity.

Does that mean I cannot buy Giorgio Armani heels, of which I did that very day my friend bought his jacket, and not stride more confidently? Not be slightly happier for owning them? No it does not. I couldn't care less if, upon dying, I was remembered for my shoe collection just as much as my intellectual contribution. Both define me. Both are part of me. Why does there have to be one or another? Maybe, at the end of the day, money doesn't actually verse happiness. Maybe it has nothing, or everything, to do with it. I don't have all the answers but what I do know is that happiness can be bought. It can also be sold. It can also be created. I know that things and objects can inspire you just as much as people and art itself. That value does not have a limit. That perception is an individual thing. That maybe, through the mist of all the purchases, gold coins and coloured notes, happiness has always been there and will always be there. Maybe we, all of us, are the ones trying to mask it or define it or subject it rather than leaving it to just be.

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