One of my favorite games growing up as a kid was “How much would it take?” It’s a really simple game to play; all you have to do is go think of an action and then ask someone, “How much would it take for you to do X?”
You learn a lot of things about yourself when you play this game. You know that saying, “Everyone has a price?” If there’s anything I’ve learned when I was playing this game, it’s that my price is really, really low. You can get me to do pretty much anything for free food or $20.
On the other hand, you find out what things don’t have a price tag. I don’t think I’d sell any part of body, even a pinkie toe, for any amount of money. I wouldn’t miss out on certain weddings for any amount of money. You start to find out what’s really important to you when you play this game.
The only problem with this game is that it requires another person. More specifically, it requires another person who’s willing to put up with these kinds of questions.
Or at least that’s what I thought until today.
Today, I dropped a dime into the toilet. Ten years ago, I would’ve dove into the bowl for that. Five years ago, I would probably have thought for a while, then grudgingly picked it up.
Today, I thought for a while, then flushed the little sucker. I guess that answers the question “How much would it take for you to dive into a toilet bowl?” Apparently, more than ten cents. I think I would have done it for a quarter. Probably.
This is somewhat alarming to me, for reasons that I can’t seem to pin down. I suppose that any self-realization is usually accompanied by some amount of panic, but still…it feels like I’m entering some strange territory of snobbishness that I hoped that I would never enter as a kid.
My hope is that it’s not me who’s changed, but the world around me. When I was a kid, a dime…actually, I don’t think it could buy you much. No, scratch that, it could buy you an Airhead. Man, I loved watermelon Airheads.
Nowadays, a dime can’t get you anything. And don’t get me started on pennies. I don’t even keep pennies anymore. I think the marginal cost of carrying a penny around is more than the value of a penny. Seriously, they’re just taking up room that other coins could be taking up in my tiny coin holder. Heck, even the melt value of a penny is more than a penny right now.
So yeah. It’s not me changing. It’s the world around me. I hope.
-Tim