What is more valuable, a plastic ring from a Cracker Jacks box or a gold wedding band?

An REI tent or a 3-bedroom house?

A sweater from the Salvation Army or from Nordstroms?

An heirloom rose or a fern?

Gold is not valuable in itself. It is valuable because there is so little of it. If sand were found only in small quantities, people would treasure it in their safe-deposit boxes; they would buy sand certificates, on important occasions they would exchange a little sand, and they would have the expression "as good as sand."

Things cannot give us status. We give status to things. When your neighbor climbs into his BMW he is giving status to the car. The car is not giving him status. Giving status to things and becoming attached to them can spell trouble. The technology bubble or dot.com crash a few years ago is a fine example.

And there was another time, back in the 1600s in the land now known as the Netherlands, when giving status to things led to the bursting of another economic bubble: tulips. They're just a bulb, right, like an onion? Yet during the early 1600s, the demand for tulip bulbs reached such a peak that entire fortunes were won and lost, often for a single bulb.

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Tulips were introduced to Europe in the 1500s. They became extremely popular. Members of the upper classes competed for the rarest tulips. And like gold, the flower became a coveted luxury item and a status symbol. Special breeds were given exotic names and the most highly sought-after tulips were streaked with colorful stripes and bright flames. These bulbs could cost as much as six times the average yearly income.

Tulips were also traded on the stock exchanges of numerous Dutch towns and cities. Soon all members of society began selling or trading their possessions in order to speculate in the tulip market. Some speculators made huge profits; others lost everything. Eventually, the bubble burst and thousands of Dutch, including businessmen and dignitaries, were financially ruined.

Neither gold nor tulips are valuable in themselves. What really gives value to anything is its usefulness in serving others. Our life draws its value, not from the money we make, or the prizes we win, or the power we hold over others, but from the service we give every day to add a little bit more to the happiness of our family and our community.