At auction, another old VW bus is expected to fetch a couple of hundred thousand dollars. There is more than nostalgia associated with those vehicles with their nifty features such as windshields that flip up. Some have 21 windows, including tinted and curved skylights.
Having driven one of the later air cooled vans for eight years, I can attest to their charm. Wish I still had it.
The Highly Collectable VW
Predictably, snarky comments were posted on the website that published word of the coming auction and the high reserve price. I say ‘high’ because of what else that same money could buy: I could pay off my house, get pristine copies of two of the old cars that I adore and still keep money in the bank. All for a massively underpowered fragile deathtrap with charm.
It was too much. I went to bat for the buyer and posted my own two cents as follows,
“To all who scoff and scold over “fools and their money” with regard to the high prices I remind you that a diamond is just a rock, a painting is just color on canvas or board, and your true love is only corruptable flesh. Truth is, the worth of anything isn’t dependent on those who disregard it. It’s based on those who apprecate it. So a diamond really is special and many recognize that. Art really can make your life better. Your true love is much more than the body they inhabit. If the car brings joy, and if you have the means to acquire it, then why would you be a fool to follow through and make the purchase? You’d be wrong not to. The money spent is hardly wasted: it went to pay the suppliers, the specialists, the restorers, and all the businesses who provide materials and parts. Keeping them employed is bad how, exactly? They couldn’t stay in the saddle if there were no market for their wares. “
There are strict warnings scripture against allowing one’s self the luxury of confusing good and evil and while this is not a good verses evil matter, it falls into the same category of mischief when one gets it wrong. People decide that their standard of valuation is correct and infallible.
But by that standard, if you happen to prefer skinny women and deride the chubby class, then everyone must follow suit or be subjected to various derisional lables: “Idiot”, “fool”, “blind”, etc. when in fact, they just have a different preference. You may not comprehend their choice, but that has no bearing on the righness or wrongness of either predilection. Go with it. Enjoy.
Personally, I find it troubling that people will come to blows over a sports team or car brand or the price someone is willing to pay for something rare.
No one came to blows in this little back-and-forth, but it does happen and it’s an embarrassment for humanity.
This is why it’s dangerous to care too much what someone thinks of any subject and why there are risks associated with advice. Too often the passionate guidance you may receive will come from someone who is passing along the attitudes of an outspoken person they esteem rather than their own fully vetted conclusions. Their awakening has not yet come and now they’ve infected you with a potentially flawed viewpoint that they adopted in the ease of trusting someone’s word rather than checking it out personally.
I’ve done it.
I’d bet you’ve done it. Sometimes, it’s unavoidable.
Now that I think about it, I have a dog in the fight because I’m an artist and there will be some who will really believe that the sum of the worth of a painting is the talley of the cost of building it (paint, canvas, wood, etc.), which I think is as rediculous as considering the worth of a woman by weighing her and applying an assay of the minerals in her body to establish material costs.
So how does real value get computed by a sensible person?
For objects, it’s a question of what others are willing to pay and market forces. Unfortunately that measure can be diluted by scams where the perceptions of worth are toyed with for illusion of inflated value.
People also trample precious things, thinking them worthless.
It occures to me that matters of real value are where the issue becomes serious. Moral issues, those that affect one’s soul, are the ones that inflame skirmishes every day as those who care either erode or stand fast for principle.
One would think that the matters of greatest worth to a soul would be the ones that bring the greatest reward, and indeed that is said to be true.
I’ll vouch for it.
But people lose their lives standing for decency, preserving their honor, and protecting their virtue. They endure ridicule, scorn, displacement, punishment, and raised eyebrows at the hands of detractors. For them the apparent reward for standing fast is cruel punishment.
I think I understand why this is so. We come to this world designed to fulfill certain objectives, not the least of which is to make a sure choice for good and against evil which is best done in experiencing the most personal manifestations of each. It is that “personal” touch that makes the choices so enduring.
Assuming that life continues according to a plan and that the next stage builds upon the choices of this life, then it is perfectly reasonable that choosing the right path may be costly in the short run. This isn’t theory, it’s application. The idea isn’t just to channel us into someone elses vision of what is best for our lives. It’s to let us pick. A sure way to establish what any of us considers the worth of a principle to be is to let us willingly choose to pay that price.
Here is where value comes into the equation intimately. In this life, we get to experience something unknown in the rest of the universe. Death.
If you are willing to stand for something even in the face of unpleasant reactions, that says something.
If you’re willing to uphold it even at the cost of your life, that says everything.
On the flip side of the coin, if you are willing to degrade the lives of others, or take them away, or trade your virtues for a transitory trade, that also makes a statement about what you consider to be of worth and how little.
As for money, I think it’s unwise to spend it for that which does not satisfy.
In the weighty matters, I think it’s also unwise to either succumb to shallow judgement or overvalue unchallenged premises. Truth always stands up well to the closest scrutiny. It’s imitators can not make this claim, though they will in hopes of sidelining your investigation.
Whether the purchase of an old car at high cost is evidence of foolishness or not depends on the facts of the individual situation. Whether you chime in with judgement in the absence of those facts may be evidence of foolishness on your part for taking that plunge.
Value isn’t established by self righteous posturing, but the posturing does make a statement about one’s system of valuation.
My point, in case I’ve been muddy about it, is that there is such a thing as real value or true worth. I don’t think it’s wise to be passionate in judging other people’s choices unless you know what you’re talking about. Besides, you risk being a hypocrit. If you agree that $200,000.00 is too much to pay for an old VW Bus, then you also agree that it would be too much to sell for if you were the owner. I’m betting you’d sell at top dollar and smile every time you think about it. You’d take much pleasure in recounting your good fortune. It may be foolish to buy at so dear a price, but how then could it be glorious to take the money?
This does not apply to scams, deceptions, immoral pleasures, or any other corruption. Why? Because they destroy, erode, devalue, harm, diminish, distract, and game the buyer. Some things are not relative, which is another part of the equation.
It’s possible to be dead certain about your conclusions and be dead wrong and of course there will always be an army of advisors who will tell you which is the case : )
Like I mentioned, truth stands up to scrutiny. Truth is knowledge. Specifically it is knowledge of things as they really are, or were, or will be.
In the case of the VW bus that may sell for over $200,000 unless you are buying it or have it to sell, why disparage? Let them have their fun!
