Value: what others see or what you have

I saw this this morning. I wrote it in 2016 and I don't know what I was going through at that time, but I know what I am facing now and the same thing applies. I am making a couple of minor changes to the original write.

"Life so fragile and love so pure; we can't hold on but we try.
We see how quickly it disappears and we never know why.
But it's okay now. . ." (from Good-bye, My Friend.)

Sometimes we go through life protecting an empty shell after selling the priceless pearl. We give it up like people gasping for air under water when one more second would have seen us safely to the surface. Esau was seen as a profane person for selling his birthright even though he was convinced that he would die in one more second without food. His evaluation of that need was purely sensual. His stomach growled, his nose smelled the food and he reacted. He experienced anguish, anger and finally acceptance and dismissal over his loss. Yet, once the anger was gone, he carried his shell proudly for the rest of his life.

Jacob expected him to still be angry years later but that expectation was based in Jacob’s value for the birthright and the blessing he tricked his brother out of. Perhaps the reason Esau was not angry was because neither the birthright nor the blessing were essential to him. He had enough. He was a very wealthy man, according to the story, with his own new legacy. But Jacob had those things that were ultimately worth everything to him. Neither the birthright nor the blessing could be seen even though they were real. His legacy was not in what he possessed in the natural that day, but what he had taken from his brother because he valued it even though it was not immediate or visable.

Disdain has little to do with logic or fact, but value does. I can fool a lot of people into believing there is a priceless pearl if the shell is never opened. I can woo them with stories of the beauty even though the beauty is secretly missing. But if a person doesn’t believe in the pearl, they will never see value in the shell I carry no matter how proud my bearing.

The reverse is also true. Most people will overlook what I carry inside if the shell does not meet their expectation. I had a very precious ring. It was the ring my grandfather gave my grandmother at their wedding: a beautiful fire opal that was housed in an inexpensive cardboard ring box. Man judges on outward appearance. I guess that's what we have in their eyes.

Just thinking about life.