Oh? Okay!

Time and money. The two greatest illusions of the mortal coil.

I have a new discovery. And it is truly of the "eureka!" variety. There are two answers to almost 82% of the questions we are asked every day.

To be fair, what led me down this road has been my tireless effort in reasearching a way to get another $20 bill in a hundred dollars, but that's on the back burner for now (and possibly another blog post - feel free to weigh in. Help a sistah out!)

Anyway, by my estimate the answer to almost 82% of life's questions can be answered with one of these two replies, "About 40 bucks" and "10-15 minutes".

Think about it. Here is list of questions that can be answered with the forty dollar answer:

"I love those new shoes! How much were they?"
"I bought girls scout cookies, but I didn't spend too much."

"We all met up at Beer Depot for drinks, but I didn't stay very long"

You with me so far?

Next, a list of questions that can be answered with my 10-15 theory:

"Oh hey, I woke up a little late, but I'll be there soon"

"I want to drive downtown to that new boutique, how long will it take? I'm on lunch."

"Holy cow, I'm hungry! When is dinner??"

The really strange thing about this idea, is that it speaks to what we are willing to give. If something I have to do takes more than 10-15 minutes that task starts to loose it's luster a little bit.

I am willing to start a garden, with the careful forethought that this project will have to be nutured. I actively and happily accept that raising my kids, builing a house or watching a film takes time. That time is born of our natural reserves, desire and instict.

But if I am asked to sit through a conference call, an oil change or a trip to the bank that takes more time than this? I am lost. Where time is concerned we must somehow instinctively know what our limits are.

Money? That's a whole other beast. The worst part is that it's a beast who feeds a beast.

Money is nothing but illusion. To cut to the quick of it yes, money is power. But let's make no mistake of it, money is something most folks worry about, and that simple (albeit esoteric) truth is that worrying about money drains our power.

For most folks who will read this blog, we get by with more than what we need. When confronted with dire straits financially, the more enlightened of ourselves find that we are luckier than most folks in the world. Forget the world. We are more lucky than most of the folks who live in our same county.

For this reason I believe the answer "about 40 bucks" suits so many of us. It's what we're willing and able to spend. We can justify no more than $40 for a pair of shoes. We can justify $40 dollars when we need to take our kids to the doctor (damned co-pay), $40 is what we'll spend happily, freely on a night out with a good friend.

"About 40 bucks" covers so much of our life that is has become a surprising catchprase of our middle class lives:

"I only spent $40 bucks on this dress"
"He and I had such a great pizza dinner tonight, together."
"I took the kids to Target and I got most of what they really need for school."

It's a blessing when we have to have our $40 to share with family or friends, and I propose we spend no more than 10-15 minutes on anything we don't want to do.

The trick is to make sure to keep these measurements in perspective.