Money, Money, Money, Money...

I am not a big fan of money. Why are some people so willing to throw their lives away, just for green sheets of paper? What is so significant about money that it must run our lives?
I do not agree with the whole "money" thing. If money didn't exist I think this world would be a happier place. People seem to think that the more money they have the happier they'll be, but then the waste their entire lives chasing after the money and never really get to enjoy their life, they're always too busy saving for the future. Someday we'll have a bunch of wealthy ninety-year-old men with no teeth, wondering what to do with themselves. They won't have any families because they were so wrapped up in money that their wives / girlfriends ran away due to lack of attention, and they won't have any friends because they were too busy making money to waste time making friends.
Life is empty if green sheets of paper are all you're interested in.
Lots of people seem to think that winning the lottery will make their lives so much easier. Well I have news for them. It won't. Not even a little bit.
People with all that money all at once have a tendency to spend it all at once and buy things they'll use for a month and then forget about. They'll try business ventures that crash, buy boats that sit unused and rusting in the back yard, move into big houses they can't afford to pay the taxes on. Their relatives will come begging for money and either be rejected (and disown the "lucky" relative who won the lottery) or else find money (and take advantage of the one who won).
There are lots of good uses for that money that don't require yachts and estranged relatives. If you win the lottery, start a college fund for your children, or a scholarship fund for other people's children. Put it in the stock market and live off the interest. Donate it to your favorite charity. Build a library. Adopt a child. Save hungry people in third world countries. Make a difference. Show you care. Start a fund for poor children who need surgery. Donate to a medical research facility.
Don't let it grow dusty and rust in your backyard. Use it for the good of mankind. That's what money is really about. Passing it on to those who need it the most.
I used to work with a guy who said that money flows like water. You'll have some people who have a lot and hog it all up, and some people who have enough to get by, and some who don't have any at all. You've got your lakes, your streaks, your droughts. Money is like water, and until we can make it flow easily and evenly there will always be those who have a lot, and those who have a little.
Why must life be about money, anyway? Why does it seem like you can't do anything if you don't have money? Climb a tree, feel the grass between your toes, enjoy the world you live in! And don't hold things too close, or you'll lose them.
Live your life. Don't let the little green presidents do it for you.