Value

Value can be what something is worth, or it can be what you personally value, which may not be valuable in monetary terms at all. Both are important. The latter speaks to your own values, what matters to you & what doesn't.

I'm just having a clear out in my house. I'm bearing in mind what William Morris said ""Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful." So stuff is gradually being disposed of in one way or another. 

  

As you age, you refine the things you value. Over the years we all accumulate a lot of stuff. Much of it sits in cupboards & drawers untouched for months, even years. There comes a time when you have to question whether it deserves a place in your home. If you meditate on your own mortality you should think about the onerous job you leave behind for friends & family to get rid of all your worldly possessions. Giving them away while you are alive at least gives you the satisfaction of knowing that someone else needs or wants them & benefits from your gift. 

The issue of what you personally value is more complex & ethical. But again, I think ones moral values crystallise over the years. Although I don't have belief in any of the main religions, or even a god, I do value ethics & a moral code. It seems to me that the main thing we should all value is the sanctity of life, whether it is human or not. So we should care about what is happening to people all over the world. They may have cultural & religious differences to us, but that does not make them any less valuable or important. We should also value & protect all living species, if not for any other reason than everything is part of one huge symbiotic ecosystem. If we damage part of it, we ultimately damage ourselves.

I have been watching the excellent BBC series "Corridors of Power - should America Police the World" The one thing it shows us is that we do not value human life. If that is true what on earth do we truly value?