IF MONEY GREW ON TREES
By Ana Brown
Models: Darnell Forbes, Jackson Sanders; HMUAs: Vickey Lee; Photographer: Jessie Curneal; Stylist: Joyce Kabwe
When I was little, I would flip through fashion catalogs and cut out my favorite high-fashion gowns to paste them to white sheets of printer paper. Each additional magazine clipping was another unfeasible material want that I added to my collection. I promised myself, under the naive impression of childhood, that one day I would have enough money to my name to buy every single dress. With every choice I make, I am reminded of that youthful motivation of money I had to own pretty things.
Money cannot buy happiness. A trope all too familiar, shadowing every path of my life. Despite this claim, I still find myself comparing my life to celebrities that can supply a whole country with food with just the cash in their back pocket. With every purchase I make of a want rather than a need, I become giddy. I, like many others, have a direct supply of serotonin from my online shopping cart.
Sometimes one must extend one’s argument to see the overall big picture. Buying my own prom dress in 10th grade furnished me with an abundance of satisfaction and gaiety, despite what philosophy says. Yet the euphoria only lasted through the planning, the event, then the pictures, eventually dying down when the likes on Instagram did. The happiness that the money “bought” me was inevitably temporary.
Despite the discovery that my contentment from my funds was not everlasting, the feeling did resemble the same joy I could feel with anything else. Although cut short, the money did in some way buy me happiness. How can one prevent the plateau of satisfaction, hopefully extending the feeling the money produces indefinitely? Some memories, like any experience, can last forever, the ecstasy only growing with time. That is often not the case, however, so one must rely on a new fondness to suspend one’s high spirits. That is where the idea of a life’s purpose comes in. When people pursue a career, they are virtually prolonging the accumulation of money. In turn, by actively participating in the accumulation of money, one is continuing the cyclic stockpile of contentment.
Some outspoken people promote money’s downfall, supporting that money is the root of all evil. Currency is destructive--sometimes outweighing morality and allowing humans to make questionable and unethical decisions. Yet materialistic wants are what drives the human race to thrive in specialization. Without the prospect of money, people would lack the motivation to pursue an aimful purpose.
One could still argue that money is a malign entity, promoting selfishness and greed. But pairing with the source of envy for the tangible green comes active evolution into a society of diversity and passion. Being successful in this new age of consumerism is not self-evaluated. Prosperity is defined by one’s environment, and the people in it. Is success trademarked by happiness and contentment with one’s self? No. Instead, the victory of life rests upon the shoulders of visible wealth. If money grew on trees, humanity would wither and wilt into dust. However materialistic and vain, one can participate in this idea of triumph but showing up and showing out--something feasible by buying, spending, and remembering that money CAN buy happiness, even if just an illusion.