We have all felt it: the rising prices, the pinch, the need for more family budget meetings. Times are tough for many of us, but there is always a silver lining.
The flooding of U.S. markets with cheap imported goods over the last few decades has certainly fed a consumer culture and fed the drive for instant gratification. Times like these can help us remember the important things and rein in our wants and desires.
I have a friend from Europe, in an area where tradition runs strong, who has few possessions compared to most Americans. He doesn’t go for the impulse buys. He says that, growing up, everyone would buy few things, but make sure they were high quality and would last.
And isn’t that the way things were in America not too long ago?
It seems there has been an effort, on so many fronts, to erode Americans’ values. To make us get caught up in the everyday and forget the eternal.
The Fleeting Joys of Material Wealth
Faith is free, and love is free. Yes, you do have to put in the time. But they are freely available to those who seek them. These things are so much greater than anything you can buy with money.
One summer while in college, I was fortunate to have the experience of renting a room in a truly grand home. The house I grew up in was a standard American suburban home—one bathroom for the whole house and nothing special. Yet the home where I spent that one summer was different: It had three to four floors, sprawling, well-manicured grounds, expensive art, and everything was very well maintained. There was even a white gazebo where you could eat your breakfast.
Renting at that home while in college taught me something that has always stayed with me: Material wealth is empty. At first, I was excited to land an inexpensive room at such a glorious place. It was a pleasure to walk through the halls and wander the grounds. But after a few days, the feelings faded. Until, in the end, it was simply a place to live.
While it might sound cliché, we might reflect back on life and consider what has given the most lasting joy or fulfillment; emphasis on “lasting.” I personally find that the joy derived from material things fades rather quickly, but the joys of connection, community, spiritual growth, and sharing and receiving love stay with me.
Origins
In terms of origins, this proverb is harder to trace than some, but most credit the popularization of the phrase to a musical called “Good News,” which came out in 1927. Here are the sweet words to a song in it called, “The Best Things in Life Are Free”:There are so many kinds of riches, And only one of them is gold. Though wealth you miss, remember this: Worthwhile things cannot be bought or sold.
The moon belongs to everyone— The best things in life are free The stars belong to everyone, They gleam there for you and me
The flowers in spring, The robins that sing, The sunbeams that shine: They’re yours!—They’re mine!
“The best things are nearest—breath in your nostrils, light in your eyes, flowers at your feet, duties at your hand, the path of God just before you. Then do not grasp at the stars, but do life’s plain, common work as it comes, certain that daily duties and daily bread are the sweetest things of life.”(Some credit Robert Louis Stevenson with the above, but published books instead credit a man named Edward Garrett.)
A Poem From the Heart
Finally, as we continue to navigate through difficult times, I leave you with the beautiful poem “Life’s Gifts” by Emily H. Watson (1904):Life’s fairest things are free; — The azure sky, with spangled sheen, The lambs at play in meadows green; In sweet profusion blooms the rose; O’er hill and vale and violet blows; And free, in beauteous splendor, flows The boundless, billowy sea!
Life’s dearest things are free, Nor to be bought with mines of gold. The peaceful home, its joys untold, Its love that binds in willing thrall, Is free alike to great and small, And, like a halo over all, God’s matchless love for thee!
