Value: What Are Things Really Worth? by Jon P.

How is value discerned? Can it be expressed with money? Is value universal? The truth is, what is valuable to one person might not be as valuable to someone else. If you stole $1,000,000 from Bill Gates, it might not affect him as much as if you stole it from a middle class family. Also, objects are not the only things that are valuable. You might value a certain person or feeling more than all the objects in the world. That means that value can’t be defined with money. Even money might be extremely valuable to one person and meaningless to another.

As an example, I will talk about two things that are valuable to me; one is an object, and one is a feeling. These things are worth more than their simple monetary value to me, because you can give up happiness to get money, but you can’t spend money to get happiness. The first object I want to talk about is my Xbox 360. I bought it for $400, and I got back hours of joy. I had owned a PS2 previously, but that couldn’t compare to the overall feeling of quality that emanated from the machine. The games also look much better than the PS2. After playing Gears of War for the first time I was blown away by how realistic everything looked. I have spent dozens of hours on several games for the Xbox 360, most notably Gears of War, Guitar Hero II, and, most recently, Halo 3. It is a good way to relax after a long day at school and have some fun, especially Guitar Hero II.

From the first day of playing I found that the controls of the game were easy to understand and use. Since then I have gotten many hours of playing time. I’m not very good, but I’m better than anyone else I have played with. Beating Guitar Hero II on Expert was a gratifying experience for me. After over a week of trying, I finally knew I could beat every song in the game. In addition to playing games, I can also rip music onto the hard drive and download things like movies, shows, games, and demos online. Overall, I would say that buying my Xbox 360 was a good investment and I would do it again in an instant.

The second thing I would like to talk to you about is more an experience than an actual physical object: listening to a great song. Listening to music can bring many positive feelings: it can make you feel energized, relax you, make you feel sad, or make you think about the lyrics. Music has an incredible ability to express feelings; sometimes you don’t even realize it’s there in a movie, but you still feel its effects. Think about your favorite band or artist. Now think about what you feel like when you listen to a song from your favorite band or artist. Whatever it is probably defies description. The feeling you get when listening to an amazing song is unique, and no one knows what causes it. Whether you like rock, pop, country, blues, jazz, metal, classical, rap, techno, country, or all of the above, they all have the same amazing abilities. This connects to me because my family and I have always loved music.

One of my brothers is excellent at guitar, and one has made tens of thousands of dollars as a church organist. I got an MP3 player at Christmas a couple of years ago and have since filled it up with songs. I don’t think anything can quite compare to turning the headphones to 11 and playing your favorite song. I plan to get a new iPod Classic this Christmas and when I do I’m sure I will be playing it for hours at a time.

Music is kind of like reading; it takes people out of their world and puts them in the world of the song. So, what is similar about these two things? Well, you could say that they both bring pleasure, they are both valuable, or that they are both experienced by many people. In truth, however, the Xbox is completely different from the feeling. The Xbox can only create the feeling of joy that you get from playing it.

Listening to music actually is that feeling. Without the joy you get from using it the Xbox would be worthless, while the joy you get from listening to music is the same even without an object to accompany it. In this sense the Xbox isn’t even really necessary. In a sense, the feelings are the only things that are truly valuable, because they are the things that make your life worth living. Without feelings life would be a meaningless shell of robotic existence. So stay true to the old adage; money can’t buy you happiness. Money is just a substitute for the things that really matter in your life; the things that make you feel good.