Education and money are not important

I surprised myself how well I articulated this last night to a friend. This was at the tip of my mind after a long day yesterday. I started the day off at Bukit Kiara (again!), and ended it very tired from a long philosophical discussion with a friend.

Education and money are not important- it is how you use it. Having the education, but not knowing how to use it to have a better life, to create more opportunities for oneself, is equivalent to not having any at all. Having the money but not knowing how to make it a continuous source sufficient for one's sustenance is equivalent to not having any at all. It is not as if the two elements are not important for us, it is how relatively important the elements are to each person is almost a factor dependent on how one uses it, and when used appropriately, you realise it is just one possible element out of a whole equation of possibilities.

I met my most oldest cousin after a long long time today. He was pleasantly happy to see me, because we have not seen each other for the longest time. After a few short conversations, it dawns on me that it is quite apparent he is in a different league - him being more street smart and underground businesses, whilst my entire family being straight and proper. He clearly stated that he wanted just a simple and content life, and that we should keep in touch with each other simply because we were family. This struck me quite deeply and enabled me to have a better understanding that how we were brought up were so different, yet I could understand how he saw things and actually felt he was no lesser than we all were in the family equation. In other words, I respected him and how he came to be. Perhaps sometime a few years ago I would not have felt so.

I met up with Prenny and Adrian later for dinner - they were ex-tour mates of mine in Europe. Adrian was adamant about trying to guess my age, and why was I reluctant to give him the number? I guess I did not like people to pre-judge each other because of age, and reason for such concerns was that I had pre-judged him and Raymond on day one. I told him truthfully how I saw him and Raymond as 'the two young men' to my parents and even stories to my friends. As for Prenny, I was uncomfortable about how disinterested she was with the entire meeting, from reading a magazine even when we were there, to not respecting that we have not have dinner and even minor things such as twiddling with the salt shakers and showing visibly how bored she was with us. However, I did not feel any negativity towards her, in fact I actually appreciated she was different, but was only uncomfy from how different she was compared to my normal friends. In fact, I had to adjust myself to her, which I felt was betraying my ownself. Again, a case of, I don't really dislike her, just felt she was different. She did no malice to me, and similarly I treated her with as much respect as anyone else. Again, both cases were a result of my increased perception of diversity around me.

Which is why education and money are not important. It is how we have evolved with these elements that interest me most and I think I've gone to a newer level of physchological development with these new insights.