Tides and Tithe

By Cliff Lake

 

Tides and Tithe

 

What value has valuation?

None, I think.

Do you value gems?

Do you value gold?

Do you value numbers on a screen?

Value is arbitrary.

Value is momentary.

Value is circumstantial.

Attend:

Salt has been valued equally to gold.

Aluminum has been valued more than gold.

Silver was valued above gold.

See the man!

He has been locked away more than this week.

He has been given only water.

He is offered a pound of gold in imprisonment,

Patterned as he cherishes.

He is offered a pound of steak in imprisonment,

Prepared as he likes.

Which will he choose?

Starvation is the great motivator.

At times I have been reduced to the essentials:

Food, clothing, shelter.

It may happen again.

Maybe I will survive it.

Maybe I won’t.

Neither matters because

Eventually I will not survive –

Not at all.

Of what value will my small luxuries be then?

To me…

Nothing.

Therefore, what value have they now?

None of them are the steak I now crave.

When I have finished surviving,

The sun will yet set,

The moon will show her face,

And the tides will roll.

And those things may be of value.

Yet, what price may be put on them?

What is the value of valuation?

None, I think…

None at all.

 

Cliff Lake 3/28/2025

Copyright © Clifford Lake 2025

Location: Wichita, KS, USA

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