This morning I was talking to my honey. At some point we came to the question:
"What would you do with ten million?"
Of course, we had moved towards that question after philosophizing about the big game of life, in which we are all players.
In that gambler's mind, my devilish hubby asked me:
"So what would you do with all that money?"
And I reluctantly said: "Oh, I don't know."
Knowing full well that he intended to lead me up the slippery slope and was only waiting for me to hook up right away.
So I said, "I would have to think very long and hard about accepting the money."
"Ah!", said my smart man, "so you'd already be thinking about what you're going to do with the money. Which would mean so much that you would take it."
Me: "I didn't say that! You know, and I know, that much money can only get you into trouble! Everyone would come running to me and tell me or advise me what to do with it. I wouldn't be doing people any favours by making them think that from now on they have to court me, and it would get on my nerves a lot to distinguish the greasy from the real thing. No, never mind, that would be too much for me!", said my stubborn self, who felt above this annoying money blessing.
But the man: "Then why don't you keep it a secret? Only your notary knows about it, nobody else. You'll set up a foundation and help all the homeless."
Me: "But I don't want to help the homeless, they have a reason for being homeless (thinking of those here in my city who could get a state subsidized apartment if they wanted it). You know how much I refuse to play the big helper! Besides, it's no fun at all. Someone from the foundation would want to do something I don't want to do and then we'd argue and argue and argue and then at some point I'd have to say that I don't want to do that and finally I'd have to say that it's my money and I only want to spend my money on things I want to spend it on and there you go."
The man, "Yeah, well, don't do it. But you could do something with that money, couldn't you? If it's not a foundation, what could it be?"
You see, he's got a terrible insistence.
I thought about it for a while.
Then I said, "I wouldn't want to do anything with that money. Just get together with some crazy people, the weird birds, the maladjusted ones and nerds, the wrong thinking ones and then we'd all just be together in a nice place, a house an Earthship - that I would buy. With the clear intention that we don't produce or sell anything and we don't want to help anyone. We are just there and everyone can research and work on his interest and devote himself to the questions that are of burning interest to him and for my sake something can be invented! But I do not want to earn anything with it. I would run this house until all the money is spent and we were happy as long as it was there. That's right."
Im getting more and more comfortable with the idea of what a joy it would be to just spend it all and not have to sell anything to anyone.
And the man already had a term going: "Ah, so a think tank! Wonderful! Now that's a good idea! Excellent!"
I don't know, I don't want to found a "think tank" either, anything with a name. I want to be alive with each other and deal with questions about what moves me and lets me cheerfully satisfy my curiosity. Only that.
And we continued to indulge in how wonderful it would be if you could join forces with a bunch of people who all don't want to make any money at all, just research and live and enjoy the fact that you could simply exist for a while in a complete bubble of independence.
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Now, just in case: If anyone hears me and wants to give me ten Million bucks: You are welcome! If not, you are welcome, too ;-)
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Title Picture:
Von Josef Stuefer - https://www.flickr.com/photos/josefstuefer/45138125/, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1326347