We had finished a sumptuous meal and I was going through some pictures of the 55th Wedding Anniversary of the host couple. We had missed the anniversary as we were out of town, so we were looking through the photographs taken on the anniversary, some people we recognized and some we didn’t. The event was a monumentalization for their kids and grand kids and these pictures were communicating and capturing the moment.
I was browsing a snap of the elderly couple and the elderly gentleman remarked, “Look at her, doesn’t she look lovely?” referring to his wife whom he has been wedded to for 55 years.
I think he was reminiscing his past at that moment and he goes on further to say, I quote.
“What am I that she married me”, “I am a nobody”.
I would have presumed that the law of diminishing marginal utility would hold here.
And here was a person who turned the tables on the economic law. Not to reduce our human relations to economic laws and assumptions, but if we juxtapose the companion to a good or service, the law states that we would put high value to its utility in the beginning this value would diminish in time.
And here I found a gentleman at 85 who put me to wonder.
This elderly gentleman was able to turn the law around. Marginal utility assumes that people are guided by their own self interest when determining marginal utility. What this means is a person will put a high value for what accrues to him/her, the next highest value to that what is the next best thing to him/her and so forth. Correspondingly, familiarity would reduce its value in time. However, self-interest has to be present for the law to work.
In this case, the octogenarian nullifies his self-interest, he puts the value on the companion than on himself.
In rendering value for the other more than himself he break the law - albeit he is unaware of this.
I think the elderly gentleman reinforced something very subtle.
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
the seemingly trivial..
Have a copious collection of stamps. For us kids at that time, philately was accessible and expedient, and it seemed to be a cinch.
I grew over philately in college. The next hobby I fell upon was collecting mugs - specifically beer mugs. I had thought this was a suave thing to do as wasn't a hobby that every typical teen had. Albeit, I was a tad late in finding out that getting beer mugs isn't as easy as going down to a pub and buying beer mugs.
Unfortunately it dubiously bestows upon one as a bibulous teen.
I guess family friends who came over home and logically presumed that if I was collecting beer mugs I would be drinking beer. In a manner of speaking the logic would be, if you stay too long with a horse you start smelling like a horse. If you smell like a horse you are a horse. People often suffer from the dubious distinction of dyslexic perceptions.
No matter how credulous it may seem, but if you keep hearing drivel you will believe it to be true. Take for instance Television soaps; I happen to see a discussion on whether television soaps reflect reality. The question posed was are TV soaps reflecting reality, as these soaps being aired on Indian TV depict some fracas or skirmish between daughter-in-laws and mother-in-laws. These soaps portray the inordinate lengths each go to vindicate some eccentric cause or the other. The reason this topic drew a discussion is on account of the increasing viewer-ship of these soaps. I mean these viewers would be empathizers with the programs for ratings to go up which got our conspiracy theorists thinking is this empathy on account of a reflection of the actual reality in the environment. In other words are the daughter and mother-in-laws at loggerheads in real life.
To this, one of the panel members, an eminent actress turned producer of TV sops commented. "We are in the business of making profit. We make programs that make profit." What she means is making profits means giving viewers what they want. The producers don't filter the real from the unreal - I mean that is democracy but a tad irresponsible.
I was in a similar disposition, I chose beer mugs as a hobby, but what got in the fore was whether I was imbibing any of the alcoholic beverage.
Coming back to my beer mugs, the final dregs was when a friend had the bright idea to present me with a poster.
It went something like "20 reasons to drink beer".
Out went the Beer mugs, the poster and my hobby.
Now, I just twiddle my thumbs.
The crux is I was censured but who censures the otherwise trivial
I grew over philately in college. The next hobby I fell upon was collecting mugs - specifically beer mugs. I had thought this was a suave thing to do as wasn't a hobby that every typical teen had. Albeit, I was a tad late in finding out that getting beer mugs isn't as easy as going down to a pub and buying beer mugs.
Unfortunately it dubiously bestows upon one as a bibulous teen.
I guess family friends who came over home and logically presumed that if I was collecting beer mugs I would be drinking beer. In a manner of speaking the logic would be, if you stay too long with a horse you start smelling like a horse. If you smell like a horse you are a horse. People often suffer from the dubious distinction of dyslexic perceptions.
No matter how credulous it may seem, but if you keep hearing drivel you will believe it to be true. Take for instance Television soaps; I happen to see a discussion on whether television soaps reflect reality. The question posed was are TV soaps reflecting reality, as these soaps being aired on Indian TV depict some fracas or skirmish between daughter-in-laws and mother-in-laws. These soaps portray the inordinate lengths each go to vindicate some eccentric cause or the other. The reason this topic drew a discussion is on account of the increasing viewer-ship of these soaps. I mean these viewers would be empathizers with the programs for ratings to go up which got our conspiracy theorists thinking is this empathy on account of a reflection of the actual reality in the environment. In other words are the daughter and mother-in-laws at loggerheads in real life.
To this, one of the panel members, an eminent actress turned producer of TV sops commented. "We are in the business of making profit. We make programs that make profit." What she means is making profits means giving viewers what they want. The producers don't filter the real from the unreal - I mean that is democracy but a tad irresponsible.
I was in a similar disposition, I chose beer mugs as a hobby, but what got in the fore was whether I was imbibing any of the alcoholic beverage.
Coming back to my beer mugs, the final dregs was when a friend had the bright idea to present me with a poster.
It went something like "20 reasons to drink beer".
Out went the Beer mugs, the poster and my hobby.
Now, I just twiddle my thumbs.
The crux is I was censured but who censures the otherwise trivial
friends...
It takes no time to make friends when you are 10 and even lesser time to get comfortable.
The initiation could be viz; "Want to play cricket?" or "Do you have a pencil?" and you've are friends. Somewhere there is a connection that makes you perceive that the next time you want to play cricket you know whom to ask, or if you ever need a pencil, you know who can lend one to you.
This is generally involuntary standard protocol at this age, sometimes you don’t even know names, you just sport or jest with the other fellow.
As we get older, we change those involuntary standard protocols to deliberate non-standard protocols.
Back to school, then!!!!.
The initiation could be viz; "Want to play cricket?" or "Do you have a pencil?" and you've are friends. Somewhere there is a connection that makes you perceive that the next time you want to play cricket you know whom to ask, or if you ever need a pencil, you know who can lend one to you.
This is generally involuntary standard protocol at this age, sometimes you don’t even know names, you just sport or jest with the other fellow.
As we get older, we change those involuntary standard protocols to deliberate non-standard protocols.
Back to school, then!!!!.
maggot brain
Maggot Brain - Funkadelic
The performance on this song by Eddie Hazel is startling.
This is his defining moment in music history and he is remembered much for this track.
He went on play nothing much of significance, and died at the age of 42.
Makes you wonder, he did all the wrong things and makes history with a definitive song, what he would have gone on to do if he did the right things.
There are a bunch of us who try to find that thing to do to make history. There are also the bunch of us who find that thing to do and bungle it.
The performance on this song by Eddie Hazel is startling.
This is his defining moment in music history and he is remembered much for this track.
He went on play nothing much of significance, and died at the age of 42.
Makes you wonder, he did all the wrong things and makes history with a definitive song, what he would have gone on to do if he did the right things.
There are a bunch of us who try to find that thing to do to make history. There are also the bunch of us who find that thing to do and bungle it.
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