You value What?
I was reading the Yahoo news today and saw an article about a purse selling for a ridiculous amount of money! The purse originally cost $345 which seems a ridiculous amount in the first place. However, this particular purse sold on e-bay for $13,100 and will be matched for a total of $26,200. Wow! 26,200! Let’s see what we could do with that money. We could:
Buy a van for a family in need
Buy 131 weeks of groceries ($200 per week)
Buy 524 $50 coats for someone who is without
Pay 2 years worth of rent or mortgage payments around $1000 per month
In some places buy a foreclosed property to live in
Support someone for about a year or more who has lost their job
Pay about 175 months worth of gas or electric for the house
Purchase about 874 gallons of gasoline
Pay for all or part of a surgery someone needs
Provide 17 overnight stays in the hospital (amount varies)
Purchase 875 or more pairs of shoes or pants for those in need
Provide 1018 sleeping bags to the homeless
And the list could go on and on.
Now, the reason this purse all of a sudden became a “celebrity” is because recently a man took a school board hostage. A woman made an unsuccessful bid at hitting the gunman with her purse to try to disarm the gunman. The attempt did not work and the gunman wound up killing himself. Viola! All of a sudden a not attractive, basic bland, too expensive in the first place purse is a sought after commodity! Furthermore, why is this so newsworthy, other than the obvious absurdity of it?
This man had a family and such. That in no way excuses his behavior. However, I have noticed that this type of thing has become soooo common place that we have put value on objects involved with these episodes rather than value and concern on the people who are affected by this type of incident. When did “things” start to out-value people?
Don’t get me wrong, I believe it is the person’s (who has the money) right to use it any way he or she feels is in their best interest. I just find it disturbing that there is soooooo much that could be done with that money rather than buy a used purse. I would love for someone to give me even $100 for my used purse, let alone $26,200.
What a crazy, mixed up world we live in. Sometimes it makes me embarrassed and a bit ashamed to claim a fair amount of the human inhabitants as my “siblings” here on earth.
Oh well, I know Heavenly Father knows my heart and what I hold as valuable.
2 comments:
That is ridiculous. I actually watched the news on that story and the gunman was disarmed and killed by a security guard. They call him the Salvation Army Santa or something like that because he buys broken toys, fixes them up and gives them to local kids. And he's white-bearded and jolly like Santa. He was so scared after he killed the gunman because he was afraid the community would be mad at him for killing someone. They are calling him a hero...which he adamantly denies. He says he was just doing his job. Anyway, I was shocked by how much that purse sold for. I was blown away by the number of things you could do for that amount of money. Don't forget adoption or infertility treatments. With that money you can create or save life. :)
I am almost embarrassed to admit this but I was one who put more stock into my personal items than need be. But over the years and as I "grew up" I realized things like that don't really matter. Those commodities only give pleasure the moment you buy it and it loses it's value and fun over time.I learned how prioritize and know what is important in my life and what is not. I am amazed at your list! It is a true eye opener...WOW!
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