The Value of Life

Imagine a world where the inherent value of an object has no intrinsic worth, no price tag, and means nothing other than its own merits to an individual. A world where money has no application and becomes useful merely for momentary satisfaction including the sound of coins falling with the result being a soda coming from the machine. A world where the appeal for materials is based primarily on preference without regard of quality, history, potential, supply, or demand. A world without greed for more, or envy for those who have, or conversely without pity for those without, and no acknowledgment of rich or poor, a world of equality, and a world without judgment.

This is the world of Joel Tucker, autistic since birth. He does not understand money. Oh, he understands the price tag on an item and he can add up the dollars and cents, and he knows that it takes money to buy things at the store. He also knows that Mom and Dad discuss money and often seem concerned about it, but in the end, he doesn't know why some things require more than others. An RC cola out of the machine requires 3 quarters that make a fun sound when fed into the machine, whereas a tie at the store needs paper money or Dad's little plastic card in his wallet. On any given day, Joel would like a new suit or a pipe organ in the house or a bag of chips with hot sauce. Purchasing shoes for $5 at a corner sale has the same meaning as a new pair from Macy's. He can accept that we have told him that a pipe organ is not an option for our home but it does not change his desire for one. Yet his wanting one is not a covetous obsession but is rather an idea of a given moment similar to his desire for a cola or new shoes.

The need for more money is a motivating incentive for hard work in our society and indirectly affects supply and demand, which then creates an economic culture that pervades our footsteps and our actions. Without a sense of labor and free trade, we fall into the futuristic and flawed Utopian Brave New World of total equality and peace devoid of the human elements needed for growth and improvement. Ironically those very elements are what lead to both happiness and misery in our world. If our happiness and joy is based upon money which leads to greater acquisition of wealth, then we fall into an extrinsic desire for more. In that marvelous book by Aldous Huxley, those rare moments of dissatisfaction and confusion require a "soma" to reach a drug-induced state of happiness and false euphoria. When joy is derived from material objects, the inevitable result is an emptiness from never having enough.

Supply and demand is a result of the inner need to improve, a drive to succeed, a necessity for affirmation, an intrinsic need for self-actualization, a desperate requirement to be important and to acquire more things. It seems to be human nature to want more toys for Christmas, and we want the best most expensive toys (never mind, that children tend to play with the boxes more than the actual item!). And yet, before falling into a diatribe on society's materialism, it is the inner drive and human spirit that has created cities, technology, and progresses forward to greater heights of creativity. Personal ambition, dedication to labor and self improvement leads directly to an acknowledgment of the value of objects and the ability to make judgments of worth.

To return to Joel's world, a world without knowledge of money and the value of objects can and does result in a lack of ambition for wealth and acquisition. This makes Joel's world rather bland by our standards and oddly confusing. The new Lexus that drives by is simply a vehicle, not to be admired more than an old Chevrolet. With clothes, food, and shelter, and a piano or organ, Joel is happy. He does not seek out ways to improve and is not able to pass judgment on the quality of any given material. He does not experience envy, greed, or drive to be the best. He is comfortable in his skin and does not approach life seeking to place value on the things around him. He simply accepts, unconditionally, that all things are equal and only desires the basic necessities of his world. His is not a world of external values, values artificially placed by human beings as they manipulate the economic system, he values lives around him. Rather than place a monetary value on all he sees, he instead values people and life.

Try taking a day to see the world through the eyes of the egalitarian Joel. All becomes tinted, all becomes equal, and, most importantly, all becomes beautiful.