This is not value

“Alchemy, possibly derived from the Arabic word al-kimia (الخيمياء), is both a philosophy and an ancient practice focused on the attempt to change base metals into gold, investigating the preparation of the "elixir of longevity", and achieving ultimate wisdom, involving the improvement of the alchemist as well as the making of several substances described as possessing unusual properties.”
--Wikipedia article for Alchemy

What do you find valuable? Is it your watch? Is it your car? Your house? Your kids?

Let me phrase it a different way: What makes your time and efforts worthwhile? Is it money?

What does money mean to you?

We as Americans use to operate our currency on the gold standard. That means that you paid for stuff in gold, or its equivalent. Paper money use to indicate that you held the deed to as much gold as the paper had written on it. Of course nowadays America doesn’t back up what the dollar claims, but that’s okay because – in general – the economy functions with the mere idea of value rather than the value itself.

Alchemists worked with all their hearts and souls with all kinds of base materials to create other things. Like one would create an alloy by combining two different metals. The assumption was that they could take one thing, boil it to its base materials, and turn it into something more valuable. Like turning lead into gold. What’s cool about that is that you can’t create the gold without first destroying the lead.

There is a particular man with whom I butt heads with quite often in life in seemingly all matters. Upon debate, I narrowed down that we disagree so often on how things ought to be carried out because we differ vastly in what we find important. We place value in completely different ideas. Where I would normally value attention and understanding, this person would value respect and proper execution. Both can exist. And awareness of these differences was a major leap for us by way of communication.

Is what we find valuable part of our personality? Is our personality something we’re born with or something we learn? This is an age-old debate for psychologists, but most seem to believe it’s a little of both and they argue about where the line is drawn.

I’ve ranted before about it, but here I go again:

With so much of our brain, moods, attitudes, even perception itself reliant on chemistry and electrical impulses – right down to who we find attractive and why – what’s to stop us from making alterations to these factors using drugs and various forms of hypnosis? What about DNA alteration? If we can make those kinds of changes to ourselves, and even to OTHER PEOPLE, where is FREE WILL?

Me and my people believe that free will is unlocked through the direction of attention. Einstein says that you can’t solve a problem on the same level it was created. This is true, you have to draw your attention to it, name it, and rise above it. If you have some mood problems and you can’t seem to shake them, and when you find out they’re the direct result of a drug you’re on, can you do something about it? Damn straight – you’ve always got a choice. Is it worth it? That’s up to you. It’s a value assessment.

When it comes to nature verses nurture, let’s look at it the way alchemists do: Whether or not you’re born with them doesn’t matter; you have them now. It’s never NOT now. They are your base materials. With them, you can leave them as they are (never mature them), or you can build upon them and make something useful. If you don’t like what you’ve built, as is often the case, you can boil them back down and try again. The ultimate attainment is to turn lead into gold. The saying to-day would be make lemonade out of lemons.

The beautiful difference here is that personalities are not as uniform as metals. If everyone put up a lemonade stand, nobody would make a profit. Luckily, everyone’s tastes are different, and everyone finds value in different things.

The dark part of this is that we can so easily get stuck as lead because BOILING HURTS. It HURTS to strip ourselves down to our base elements; or to really get a good look at ourselves. It hurts to go through tough times, and to suffer through refinement. But it’s worth it EVERY TIME. This is a constant. No matter WHAT it is you find valuable.

I heard a story once about a man who went out for the Olympics for discus throwing. When he went to practice throwing his steel discus, he found that he fell significantly short of what he needed to in order to even stand a chance against his competitors. So he determinately practiced day in and day out until the Olympics, and he was just barely making his goals. He went anyways and the strangest thing happened: He blew his competitors out of the water. Why? Because he was practicing with a steel discus unbeknownst to himself. The standard Olympic discus is wooden with a steel outer rim.

It hurts to suffer, but we can rejoice because of how awesome we will be on the other side. It’s our refinement, our taking shape. Like how mustaches grow in fuller the more you shave them.

Did you know that if you regularly massage your face in an upward pattern, that the fibers will learn to grow in that direction? It’s like a facelift without all the Botox. It’s like how cherry trees learn to grow shorter when you clip the tops. It’s like how you can train a dog to salivate at the sound of a bell.

Sometimes the experience of life is a painful one, but it’s necessary. It’s how you turn lead into gold. And everyone’s base materials are different because we’re all here for different reasons. Understanding this is pivotal to communication. And realize that time exists so that everything doesn’t happen all at once.

We don’t always know what our greatest potential is, but that’s the spice of life, isn’t it? Not knowing? There are UNLIMITED INFINITE POSSIBILITIES, so keep your attention open to direction.

As for the elixir of longevity, that is basically another name for the fountain of youth, which is another excuse for desiring immortality. The drive for this is both out of fear of dying due to lack of knowledge, or fear of pain (as the concept of Hell requires), OR it is created in us to remind mankind that although we experience a finite time on Earth, the prime directive is the journey Home where we do not grow old and die. Our understanding of this is best addressed in the Christian Messiah Yeshua, more commonly referred to as Jesus Christ.

--J.M. Gatewood
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