Balloons

I recently heard someone say the old line, "he's worth his weight in gold." Which made me think about weight. A lot. In a Walmart world, we sometimes equate weigh with value. More is better. Bigger is better. To continue my incredibly poor metaphor here, I can see why we like the material "cinder blocks" in life. They build foundations. They are solid. We can see them. We can touch them. The more we have the more secure we feel. And if we put them on a scale we can measure how much we have. Measuring seems to be very important to most people. It seems to give us a sense of value. Which seems to give us a sense of importance. Which seems to give us a sense of meaning. I thought, "What if you put a balloon on a scale?" It wouldn't weigh very much. Really, it wouldn't weigh anything at all. But then, the scale is the one of the Walmart world. Balloons are better than blocks. They defy the scale. They float about. They don't last forever. And if you pop one the air inside simply returns to the rest of the air all around. Still with us. So, maybe instead of finding value in blocks we should place it in balloons. The stuff we cannot see with our eyes or measure on the Walmart scale. But the stuff that we take for granted. Like friendship. Sympathy. Sincerity. Authenticity. Integrity. And love.