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Extra points to anyone who gets the reference.
Silver and Gold, and Earthenware
One can drink from earthenware cups which are quite as good for quenching the thirst as goblets of gold; and the wine which is poured into them is not tainted, but yields a fragrance sweeter than from cups of gold or silver.
Musonius Rufus had a wonderful talent for deflating nonsense. His question is a straightforward one: does water held in a gold cup quench your thirst any better than the water in a clay one?
Placebo effect notwithstanding, it doesn't.
Yet we spend an significant amount of our lives pursuing golden cups. The nicer car, the bigger house, the upgraded seat, or the expensive watch — none of which are bad on their own (they're preferred indifferent things).
Musonius presses the point anyway: the expensive version is harder to acquire, more anxiety-inducing to protect, and no more effective at doing the actual job.
But this isn’t an argument for living an impoverished life… it's an argument for honesty about what we're really buying when we buy the gold cups.
We’re not buying function, we’re buying the feeling of having something extra nice.
We’re not necessarily shamed if this is the case, but it’s something we should remind ourself of regularly since the feeling we’re buying never lasts… so maybe we should be extra discerning in concerns to when we decide to lean into it.
Today's suggestion: The next time you reach for the premium version of something, try pausing and asking: "Would the simpler version do the job just as well?" Sometimes the answer is no, and that’s okay, but it's still a question worth asking to keep yourself honest.
Stay hungry. Stay wise. Eat brekkie.
