What it is for a thing to have value is no small question.
It is personal in that it determines how we allocate our time, attention, energy, and effort. It is directly related to our views of the world; how we think things are, and how we would like for them to be. It is a reflection of our preferences, and our ideals. It is the cost we’re willing to bear, the price we’re willing to pay, and the world that we want to live in. And although we may differ in our views on what is and is not worthy of being ascribed value, we do not differ in what it is that we ultimately have to give in pursuit of what it is that we value. We all must give of ourselves.
It may seem rather basic to say that attention is scarce, and that how we spend our time and energy is in some way a reflection of our values.If it does, you might not need to hear it. Or at least, it wouldn’t hurt for you to be reminded. Those who do need to hear it are caught in a world where the demands on our attentional resources have left little value in what is attended to. The commodification of our attention has come with a price, at a price. With attentiveness swerving unfocused from stimulus to stimulus, there is no room, no space for discernment. Discernment, being the ability to recognise that some things are more worthy of our attention than others. To be discerning is to see, wilfully, that the way in which we spend our attention is a choice, and has consequences. To be discerning is to choose, with intent and with purpose.
The same can be said of our effort.
When convenience rules our lives we lose the ability to make difficult choices. To even know what it is to make choices.In defaulting to the convenient options, in shying away from that which requires work, we minimise the worth of the effort we have to give and the decisions that we make. It is to limit the size of what we can achieve. Unable to do the work ourselves, or discouraged by the effort required by what may be inconvenient, we lose our ability to face hardship with a sense of resolve; steady purpose and a determination to carry on. Grit and perseverance in the face of that which life asks of us.
In devaluing our attention, we have lost the ability to see further. So we must learn to be discerning. By prioritising convenience, we have forgotten how to overcome difficulty. So we must learn to be resolute.But to be discerning, to be resolute, are not easy things.
In recognising the value of things, we must accept hard facts. Things have a price, choices have consequences, and what have to give of ourselves is limited. To choose can be inherently difficult, for we must decide what we live without, what we will miss. In choosing what we allocate value to, we are implicitly saying that there are things we do not value as much. But to shy away from that choice is arguably to value nothing.
By not choosing, by surrendering choice, we steal from ourselves the possibility that anything has value.In order for us to be capable of giving value to anything, we must first be capable of valuing ourselves. Or rather, we must recognise our worth, and the worth of what we have to give. We must recognise that in allocating these scarce resources we are making a sacrifice. We are making a choice to live in one world over another. We are choosing to give of what we have to one thing, and not the other.
If we cannot value our choices when it comes to small things, how can we claim the right to make choices about anything else? Who deserves ideals that cannot appreciate the cost, price, the sacrifice, of having values? None of this is to say anything about the complex work of navigating differences in values, or in reconciling the different choices and priorities of individuals or groups. Nor what it means for ideals to be good, right, or just. All of this territory remains out of bounds and off limits until the basic work is done. The work of finding what it means to choose, to value, to have and know worth.
We are what we spend our time doing. We are what we consume, we become that to which we attend.
To give up one’s choices for fear of missing out on everything, is to lose sight of the value of anything.
