What Matters

 

Dennis Prager on 7/7.2014 narrated a short video, entitled, What Matters In Life; I took notes on the video and will comment on them: “What is the most important thing that you will ever have? Is it money? Money is better to have than not to have but it is not the most important thing in life. The rich are often unhappy.”

 

My response: Prager is right as usual: money will not buy you money or happiness, or insulate you from suffering or loss, but having enough money and goods to self-realize and live mildly well does minimize casual unhappiness, and this minimizing or eliminating this negative source of happiness deprivation is not a trivial accomplishment.

 

Prager: “Is love the most important thing? Love is important in family and friends, but it is not enough if one does not have happiness.”

 

My response: What Prager says seems counterintuitive, but I think he is correct. Love is mighty important, but if one is not happy as a godly person of good will and a wholesome positive attitude, it would crimp one’s ability to love the self or anyone else. I would suggest that being loving and loved as well as being happy coexist as coequal, mutually interact emotional, existential and intellectual dimension of a life well-lived and enjoyable.

 

Prager: “Is happiness is the most important thing in life? No. A life that is based on good values is the most important thing in life. It is more important than love, money, or happiness.”

 

My response: I agree but money, love and happiness are important too and all of these positive, mutually reinforcing forces must be concurrently operating in one’s life.

 

Prager; “Values are more important than your feelings. People assume how we feel about something is the most important thing. No feelings are not that important.”

 

My response: Good values are number one, and that is why we need moderate, rational egoism promoting personal self-realizing, and then all of these other second tier objectives can be served. Bad values come from the Evil Spirits. Living by such poor values leads one deeper into sin and unnecessary suffering not away from them.

 

Prager: “We feel like eating junk food even if it makes us obese and unhealthy. Bad values make us willing to eat junk food, but good values lead us to eat well to stay healthy.

 

A battle occurs inside people: What we feel like doing conflicts with good values that we hold. This conflict between what we feel like doing versus our values is even more important when it comes to how we treat other people not just ourselves.”

 

My response: how we are tempted to act versus our artificially acquired good values is the eternal conflict that each sinner fights each day, but we can win the battle most of the time, becoming good people. Good values as our guide to act is important in how we treat ourselves, and how we treat others, and allow them to treat us well, with dignity, courtesy and respect, or face pushback.

 

Prager: “I can demonstrate the opposing pull of feelings versus good values followed: If my dog is drowning versus a stranger drowning nearby at the same time whom do I help first?  I feel like I should rescue the dog first, versus my values saying to me that a human is more important than the dog, so rescue the human first.

 

We feel like sinning versus following our values to restrain ourselves.

 

Almost everything wrong in our world comes from people either not having higher moral values, or not living by them because they want to do something else. Good values matter most in the world. The best people battle their feelings every day. So should you.

 

My response This moral sage have given the world so much needed guidance.