The one where I didn't mention that plastic U.S. flag

     There are things about Korea I don't understand, things I don't want to understand, and, believe it or not, things I actually do understand about Korea.  They are a "make do" kind of people.  The local store might reserve its parking space overnight with random pieces of concrete in some plastic buckets with a broom laid between them.   A car repair shop might create an entry to the street by laying some broken boards down for cars to rumble over the curb rather than refashioning the curb into a driveway.   The custodian of an apartment building might tape together pieces of cardboard to make a dust pan for a broom he made of a piece of scrap and some flexible twigs.
     You cannot have a conversation with a Korean national for long before the cost of something becomes the topic of choice.  The coat you're wearing, the coffee you're drinking, the vehicle you arrived in, the prices of all these things are fair subjects.  They're good at remembering the prices of things, and even though I am not wealthy, after I pay for something, the amount I paid is no longer relevant.  The deed is done, the money has passed from me to the seller and as far as it concerns me, it has been miraculously changed into a coat, a motorcycle, or a cup of coffee whose values to me may now differ wildly from that of the original seller, and money may no longer be the measure of value I use.
     So what of this national pastime of frugality?  I think it's because they are often attached to the money itself rather than what it can do to make the eye happier, the mouth and nose sweeter, the skin more joyful, the muscles and bones more contented in themselves or in others.  How people use their money tells me a lot about them. It tells me how much they value the things they use, the value they place on their work, and the worth of the people they spend time with.  
     When I was in the Army, I wasn't one of those soldiers who splurged on records, fancy clothes, or went bingeing on Saturday nights after pay day, and sometimes people would often joke when they saw a moth that "Michael must have opened his wallet."  However, none of the people who really knew me said that, because my friends know where my true values lie.  Just because my values are not the same as others does not mean I don't use money to show what I value, though money can sometimes be a poor measure of true value.  Have you never used the words "priceless" or "invaluable"?
     Money makes life better, that's true.  However, if we use money only for our own selfish interests, the world sees at a glance what we really value.  We are in this world together.  We all evolved from the same life that so precariously emerged from the countless ages of history.  We are all one life in the eyes of Nature.  We have reached the stage where we no longer have to fight and kill our competitors for food.  We have the ability to organize ourselves for the well-being of not just our species but all species. It depends on where our values lie, though.  Do we exert our energy accruing money simply for the sake of the money?  Have we made life in this 21st century so precarious still that people find money their only stable happiness?  If so, then shame on us.  Mammon is a fickle god to worship.