Part Four, Personal Wealth

Our values as people are largely the sum of our abilities and skills. Marketable skills contribute to our monetary wealth, social skills make our lives more enjoyable, ability to solve problems gets us out of trouble, and living skills make our lives easier. I have been diverse rather than focused on any skill set. I had wanted to be an illustrative artist as a boy, and to vanquish this folly my parents and teachers demanded volumns of teaching of writing skills.

So I became a writer of sorts, majoring in English in college, writing some poems and becoming the editor of the college literary magazine.

English majors fare poorly in war, and war was demanding me. I joined the Navy, becoming an officer and really enjoying operating a ship at sea. That is how I came to my professional career writing books to teach other fellows how to operate ships at sea. Some of the material I wrote demanded illustrations which I had to provide. I was mostly self-trained, but machinery is still-life, and I could handle it.

And when I retired I became an artist for some years.

So I have some value as a writer, some value as a mariner, and some value as an artist.

Seque? Does this belong in Social wealth?

Our attitude toward life and ability to distinguish the important from the trivia help control our destinies.

Those who have personal liberty tend to take it as a right. Those who lack it yearn for it. It is often abused, which threatens its continuance. When understood as self- governance it is best preserved. When taken as license to be uncontrolled and unaccountable, social entities must provide control and accountability. Crowded populations must surrender more liberties to government than those who live further apart. And, as the other forms of wealth, what you do with liberty determines its personal value to you. The freer man has the greater personal value, the slave has his personal value lost to his value as an object.

Socialital factors influence personal worth. Some societies value individuals highly, others regard all but a few as exploitable resources, and even as chattels. There are two measures of this value. One is how your society values you, and the other is how you value yourself. These measures influence each other, and you can influence both.

Sometimes in response to our societies, sometimes for other reasons we project or emphasize a certain personal image. An extreme is wanting to be feared; a more common one is wanting respect. Some would be seen as kind and generous, others as cold and frugal. Many want to be lovable, some wish to be pitied.

Between how you wish to be seen and how society regards you, lies the practical, function person you are. It is usually most healthy to regard yourself well.