The Most Precious Commodity in the World
Dr Vernon Coleman
Society doesn’t like you sitting down looking at the flowers.
While you are sitting down looking at the flowers you aren’t consuming anything.
And when you aren’t consuming, industry, shops and banks aren’t making a profit.
Banks and businesses desperately need you to go through life on the run. They need you to spend, to travel, to throw away and to replace. They need you to follow fashion. Money keeps the world turning and so society needs you to be greedy and ambitious.
If you sit down and watch the world go by then you are worthless to the social structure we have created. Every moment you spend lazily watching the clouds drift by, or watching birds and animals at play, or staring into the sunset, is a wasted moment as far as society is concerned.
All this explains why you feel guilty if you do stop and do nothing; why you feel guilty if you lie in bed on a Sunday morning or if you sit down when you could be doing something ‘useful’.
Society knows that if you are to continue earning and spending then you must keep working. Society knows that if you are sitting around enjoying the world then you are unlikely to be doing anything of material value.
As far as society is concerned, if you aren’t consuming then you aren’t real. As far as society is concerned a moment of contemplation is a moment wasted.
I suggest that you ignore society’s demands and choose to take life at your own pace. Stop, sit, relax and rest when you want to stop, sit, relax and rest.
Remember that time is the most precious commodity in the world. No one knows how much time any one of us has. And it is up to you to decide whether you want to waste or enjoy the hours you have left.
Remember that one commodity that is more precious than money is time.
Vernon’s Law
Everyone knows that you can buy money with your time. But only the wisest realise that you can also buy time with your money.
NOTE
This essay is taken from Toxic Stress by Vernon Coleman. To purchase a copy please visit the bookshop on www.vernoncoleman.com
Copyright Vernon Coleman February 2025
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