Considering - Value

I am not leaving the top of my blog with some half-dreamed story that I scribbled two weeks ago.

I have been considering the value of things lately, as I am taking two economic and one accounting course this semester. I have textbooks that my mother wants out of the house, but also wants a fair price. In Econ, I learned that the initial price already paid is a sunk cost - thus, it needs to be irrelevant to current decision making. What the books are right now are intangible costs, as they take up space in our household. Their existence and volume in the household is deadweight until they are read by another or used to prop something up.

The main point is that nothing is valueless - its existence spurs or halts productivity in some way. One of the cornerstones of economics is that resources should be used by the person/group that values them the most. I have decided that one of the first signs of responsibility is the realization that my time is no longer free, it is worth something. This has a dual, but unified, view of the word "free" - I cannot free up time as well as I could as a child, as my time could gain value by spending it in study or labor. I cannot read recreationally as much as I'd like, because I have schoolwork with which to keep pace or ahead, and small services around the household to ease my mother's workload.

The irony behind this statement is that I haven't even touched the fringes of the wonder, responsibility, maturity, and time constraints that will be demanded of me in the future. I know from the geologic Principle of Uniformitarianism that what is going on in the present has also taken place in the past. [Depressing though it may be for an author or musician who likes the refuge of hoping their work is original in its structure and styling, if not substance. :(].

I will one day look back on these college days with wistfulness of my current state of mind, body, and freedom. But, then, I pray that I rouse myself into the present, finding that I wouldn't trade those days for the beauty of the new day that God has given me, of the wisdom and experiences He has granted me along the way.