The Problem With Money

There is a sushi restaurant not far from my house. I go there almost every Tuesday night. It is without a doubt the best sushi restaurant in the small city where I live. The food is good and consistent. The itamae (sushi chef) is Japanese and prepares sushi in a traditional Japanese manor. This restaurant has all the makings to be a great restaurant.

But it is not. It is average compared to other Japanese food restaurants you can find in New York, Japan and San Francisco. It is average because their product is average. They do not use top quality food. Their produce is not organic, local or fresh and even though their fish is good, the quality is just ok. It is not difficult to tell that they cut a lot of corners, compromise the quality of their products, so that they can make more money.

I understand that businesses need to make money and survive. People in the city where I live may not want to pay the higher cost of a top-quality food product free of pesticides, locally sourced and mindfully created. Businesses know what they are doing when they chose a cheaper product. But what is the cost when individuals and businesses decide to cut corners for profit?

I would say that something vital is lost. When the desire or need to make money is placed at a higher level than the product being sold, the result is an average product. In a sense, we live in a society filled with these average products. The law of averages is everywhere. It fills our streets, television screens, music choices, on-line advertisements, homes and offices. Averageness is what happens when even the most well intentioned greed wins out.

When an individual or business does not place the need to make money on a higher level than the product being sold, you can tell. You can see it, smell it, taste it, hear it and even touch it. Our senses respond in a more stimulated and alive way to things that are not average. When we are confronted with things that are above average our senses wake up. We become excited and inspired. Art, food, music, literature, film and business that has not conformed itself to the law of averages can be immediately recognized. You know it when you see it.

Money is a wonderful thing. It allows us to have a good quality of life. It allows us to have certain securities in a chaotic world. It enables to have a certain level of health and cultural care. We can live healthier lives with a certain amount of money. But when the need to make money trumps the quality of the product that the person is selling, what you are left with is mediocrity. An average film. Average food. Average art. Average music. Average business. Average literature. In a sense, we are a society that embraces averageness. We do not often think to seek out something of better quality. We accept the average as a normal part of life.

Why settle? There are artists, businesses, writers, musicians, chefs and many other kinds of individuals who have not settled. They have put the value of the work that they do and the products (and services) they are selling at a higher level than the need to make money. Greed has not won out. Personally, I think it is important to our bodies, minds and souls to seek these people out. To expose ourselves to the products that these people create. It is important to support these individuals who refuse to be average. I certainly don’t want to live in a society where everything and everyone is average. Yikes! By exposing ourselves to the products these people create and sell it can inspire each of us to be less motivated by greed in our lives. To put quality above the need to make money in our own work. To be less compromising when it comes to the need to make money. The result of this could be a healthier, happier and more enriched (less average) society for us all to live in.

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