Untold Riches

The voice of the treasure Sphinx from Aladdin has been cycling around in my head today. “Touch nothing but the lamp. “, in that rough, gravely voice. A cave of treasure beyond anyone’s dreams, ripe for the taking and no way to get at it. Sounds like a great plot for a movie. Of course it has been done numerous times, the most recent of note was National Treasure with Nicholas Cage. But let’s get back to Aladdin.

You have Jaffar, the evil man looking to use magic to achieve his evil deed. He needs to find the “diamond in the rough” to get his hands on the lamp because he is not of the right moral character. It is another case of the greedy and power hungry using the poor and innocent to do their dirty work. So much in life is viewed as the rich versus the poor. Rich people are always perceived as manipulating the system to get what they want and the perception is that they get what they want. The little man has no chance because “the man” is keeping him down. Poor unhappy Aladdin, a beggar on the streets goes against rich happy powerful Jaffar. Oops, I mean happy Aladdin and miserable Jaffar.

It is a great assessment that things do not make you happy. Status does not improve your long term misery index. Money, a necessary societal tool, is nothing more than that; a tool. It buys whatever it can afford and consumes whatever it wants. Having too much money is the narcotic of the masses. It is what everyone craves but becomes the monkey on your back once achieved. You have to start protecting what is yours and everyone wants to be your friend. Look at Mike Tyson for a case history of that abuse. I am not advocating being poor, but beware of the dreams of avarice. Take the advice of the Sphinx and when confronted by the dream of untold wealth, touch nothing but the lamp. It holds more than a Genie.

Icool

Cobb