For Sale

I have several items I would like to sell at a reasonable price.
A few lenses for a Canon DSLR camera, an electric guitar, some old jeans.
If you're interested give me a call.

Since I'm looking to sell a few things, lately I have become acutely aware of other people in the same predicament. We have stuff, and we don't want it anymore; we rather sell it and buy something else.
This is not an isolated event.
It appears that people everywhere, have decided the very same thing - that what they have is no longer satisfying their needs and desires. In fact, everywhere I look, I see "For Sale" signs.
On the hoods of cars parked alongside the road. On jet-boats and campers parked in yards. On houses. On businesses. On Tractors. On firewood. On food.

I take a walk.
This is very interesting.

Out of curiosity, I buy a newspaper - inside, the pages littered with the words, "For Sale, For Sale!" There are animals for sale, land for sale, sports cars for sale. A sailboat for $5900 catches my eye - "only used once", the ad reads.

I as lay the newspaper down, my mind starts to rev up. I begin wondering, "What else are people getting rid of?". Surely not everything is for sale? Right?

I am wrong.

I am sitting in front of my laptop, scrolling through a website called Ebay. On this website, you can quite literally buy anything you want.
You can buy a multi-million dollar mansion - on the coast, or in the mountains. You can buy airplanes. You can buy rare collectible coins. You can buy massaging cushions that sit in your chair; or you can buy massaging chairs that sit in your living room. You can buy baseball cards. You can buy stain-glass windows. You can buy a movie theater.
For the right price, you can have damn near anything.

As I sat in front of my laptop, (wondering which mansion to buy) I started asking the question, WHY? It is always a great question - it takes you back to truth.
I started asking myself, why all these people are selling these spectacular things?
Why are there "FOR SALE" signs at all?

(It is easy never to break down the reasons of motion. It is comfortable to sell and buy, and never investigate the purpose behind such a simple concept.)

The only reason I consider selling anything, is because I believe, somewhere out there, is something else which will satisfy me even more than what I currently possess. For some unknown reason, I feel compelled to sell that which I own, and buy something grader, better, faster, more expensive - surely that will satisfy.... Right?
Ironically, the cycle never ends. .

My conclusion: anything with a price tag has already been attempted, used, faded, and determined not to completely satisfy. Apparently, no matter what I buy, it can never offer me absolute satisfaction. I can tell.. because it is for sale. The houses, the mansions, the cars, the airplanes, the boats - do you want to know why they are all for sale?
The REASON, is because they didn't satisfy their owner.
There is something better, and the owner knows it.

We keep swimming further and further towards the light, but we never break the water's surface - always an elusive mirage tricking our stubborn minds.

Maybe:
Complete satisfaction is the opposite of ownership. Maybe it cannot be bought, or sold; it is beyond purchase.
The satisfaction in a sunset - completely un-diluted, un-harnessed, un-restrained, un-predictable. The satisfaction in the color of the sky. The satisfaction in the songs of birds, and the satisfaction of summer warmth.

Find these things that are not for sale. That is where satisfaction will be.









When we, ourselves, cannot be bought at any price, then we are absolutely free.



(Andrew Tipton)