I have watched with amusement, the recent surge in the value of the steem backed dollar and all the hustling and bustling that accompanied it. On one hand, perhaps I have more time to observe because my posts have not been good enough to attract big rewards, hence, no steem backed dollars to trade or exchange. On the other hand, I limit my observation to just steem backed dollars because I know next to nothing about other cryptocurrencies. While at it, two important events that shape humanity came to my mind - greed and contentment.

Greed: The hunter's story

The meaning of greed varies from one place to another but simply put, it is an intense or extreme insatiable desire for something or someone. While the greed for money is called avarice, the greed for food is called gluttony, greed for material things is called materialism with every other greed having their generic taxonomy.

Greed is best illustrated by the parable of a brave hunter. He became very successful in one of his hunting expeditions that he had to carry one of his preys on the right shoulder, one on his left shoulder, another one on his head while his dog is busy carrying another prey in between its jaws. While trudging towards home heavily, he still found the strength and time to use his leg to dig the hole of a cricket in order to add to his gift of preys. What a funny but pathetic hunter!

Contentment

In a complete contrast to greed, contentment is an inherent ability to be satisfied with whatever one have. The similitude of contentment is like that of a group of fishermen that only fish for few hours per day and spend the rest of their day drinking palm wine and spending time with their loved ones. Along comes a Masters of Business Administration holder who encouraged them to extend the number of hours they use in fishing so as to get more fishes, more money, expand their fishing business, diversify their investment and retire at old age to drink and spend time with their loved ones. The fishermen thought deeply and saw no reason in having to sacrifice their present happiness to purse wealth and material things just to live a happy life at their old age. Life is too short, they said. Be happy while you can

Happiness is not something to postpone for the future, it is designed for the present.

Greed, contentment and the steem backed dollar

Lots of steemians have turned frenzy. The SBD keeps increasing in value without any satisfactory explanation. I have seen and read a lot of analysis in recent days. I have seen lamentations and accusations from minnows - something about raping the reward pool. I have heard of posts not been rewarded deservedly. I have read about excitements as well as frustrations. Perhaps I cannot relate well because I have not had any significant SBD in my wallet. In all these, I see greed and contentment. While some are posting furiously to increase their earnings, some are busy trading from coin to coin to get maximum profit while some of us are just contented onlookers who have no option than to just look. Perhaps our own time will come too.

The world has enough for everybody's needs, not for everybody's greed

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Reference
dictionary