The riches of self
ALBERT Einstein’s Theory of Relativity evokes a 21st century understanding of being rich (‘The AFL’s highest-paid players revealed”, HS, 14/8). With the cost of living soaring for thousands of Australians, this newspaper’s SmartSavers series will hopefully help people “take control” of their finances.
Simultaneously however, I’ve seen the AFL Rich List , 100 footballers earning $1m+plus a year, a 27-year-old buying an $80m Toorak mansion, GPs baulking at bulk-billing, a philanthropic $30m mental health gift and Manchester United star Cristiano Ronaldo apparently offered $3.4m a week to play for an unnamed Saudi Arabian club.
In this context, one can only ponder, albeit psychologically, what being rich really means? Surely it’s relative, with renters shivering through winter, Facebook users crowd-funding for food, takeaway dining increasingly off the table and need replacing want as the impetus for survival, among other things.
As an adolescent, being rich and of course famous, was an alluring ambition, but by my late 20s, I was awake to a far more meaningful aspiration about the riches of self.
Living with self-love, self-respect and self-esteem became my mantra, with masses of money in my bank account irrelevant to lifestyle.
Acknowledging the precocity of life to live and let live has been my philosophical perspective ever since, with having fun and enjoying myself transcending all manner of other material manifestations. It’s a very different sense of rich with the rewards beyond measure!
THE FEMMOSEXUAL 