Proverb: Burning the Birkin

Orchids Galore! Ginter Botanical Garden.  Copyright 2012: singeronthesand

Dear friend, if bad companions tempt you,

don't go along with them.  If they say...

"We'll load up on top-quality loot;

We'll haul it home by the truckload!"

Oh, friend,...don't listen to them for a minute.

Nobody robs a band with everyone watching,

Yet that's what these people are doing - 

they're doing themselves in!

When you grab all you can get, that's what happens:

the more you get, the less you are.

Portions of Proverbs 1:10-19 [The Message]

There once was a rich girl with a very famous movie star daddy, who got bored on a sunny afternoon.  She and her erstwhile [also rich] boyfriend [the two are stars of a reality show], decided that they needed to liven up life a bit, do something to juice their day - show the world that they were real movers and shakers.  I don't have a clue which one came up with their brilliant idea, or what friends they talked into joining their little escapade (a photographer for one?).  Rich girl grabbed one of her handbags (a red, genuine crocodile Hermes Birkin bag valued @ $100,000), rich boy grabbed $4.00 of gasoline and a chain saw, someone grabbed a video camera, and the pair had a wonderful time destroying the bag, then posting the video on  his blog and preparing it for a run on their reality show.  Rich girl's chipper little comment?  "Destruction is a beautiful version of freedom..."

Unfortunately for her and her boyfriend, much of the world found the incident... unfunny, to say the least.  Many have wondered who in the world could afford a $100,000 handbag (people with money to burn?).  Others spoke of what $100,000 would mean to them in their lives, their families, their communities, the world.  If you didn't want the handbag, why not donate it to charity to be auctioned?  If you didn't want the handbag, why not sell it and give the money to a favorite charity, school or church?  But that's the point, isn't it?  The good that could come from the bag was not exactly on the woman's radar; and all she wanted to do was raise a little Cain, have a little fun, spark a little controversy, generate a little publicity.  Show a little stupidity?  The backlash has been so severe, the boyfriend is now offering (in words, not in deeds so far) to donate $100,000 to a local charity.

I love the ending verse of Solomon's proverb:  "the more you get, the less you are."  Notice that it does not say, "the more you get, the less you have."  No - Solomon is not talking about things, but about character.  When one is all about greedily grabbing the brass ring, something changes on the inside.  They may have more goods, but they end up with less of themselves.