The wealthiest person is a pauper at times compared to the man with the satisfied mind.

Money. It's a funny thing. It's the root of all evil, according to those who misquote the Bible. According to those who quote it properly, it is the love of money which will bring about the doom and fiery fate of your eternal soul. According to ABBA it must be funny in a rich man's world, and Pink Floyd would have you believe it's a crime, a gas and a hit.



It's no end of trouble, is what it is. When you can't get your hands on it, anyway, and there's a stash somewhere with your name on just PENDING, hanging around in the ether waiting for someone at a desk to press a couple of keys and make it yours. Jonny Cash (and Jeff Buckley and Bob Dylan) all sang about the man with the satisfied mind being better off than a fool with a hell of a lot of money. Which I agree with, sort of.

But here's the rub. To have a satisfied mind these days you need to be financially secure. And no one ever seems to be singing about the fact that "if I had just enough to get by, and a good set of friends etc I'd be fine". It's always Really Rich and sad or the Poor and Happy. Now, when I've got wages from Christmas which haven't yet materialised because of, once again, computers, and tax that the government have wrongly taken off my summer wages still pending, and am running low on money with rent to pay, bills coming and food disappearing, you'll forgive me if I haven't quite got as satisfied a mind as I'd hoped to have. I don't want to be rich and famous for the money. I want to be recognised, and already I recognise it's a pipe dream. But I'd love to be rich and famous just so I could get by. That would please me no end.



Now, I'm off to the tax office to see what the status is on the remainder of my incoming wrongfully acquired wages. Maybe it will have moved from PENDING to ON IT'S WAY. In which case, my mind will be put a bit more at ease, if not entirely satisfied. We'll have to wait and see.