Assets without Worries

Time and health are two precious assets that we don't recognize and appreciate until they have been depleted. - Denis Waitley

An asset is, loosely, something of value, being owned and having value. You have a body; the body is the asset, at least to some. The ark of the Bible was an asset, goat skin tents were likewise assets in those old days, and at least two goats a year. Now: "Ark gone, temple demolished, goat ritual for yearly atonement of a whole people's sins each year (Numbers 16) - also gone, along with all the ordinances for them," and so on. (See Exodus 27:21; 28:43; 29:9; 31:16; Leviticus 3:17; 17:6-9; 23:41; 24:3,8; Numbers 10:8; 15:15.)

Assets that come close to the heart, may be kept a long time and can treasured for years. Sigmund Freud finds many assets to be symbolic according to an age-old symbology of "boxes and sticks", if you will:

Compare with Yin: Small boxes, chests, cupboards, and ovens correspond to the female organ; also cavities, ships, and all kinds of vessels. - A room in a dream generally represents a woman." Add suitcases to that if you will.

Compare with Yang: Elongated objects, sticks, tree-trunks, umbrellas (on account of the opening, which might be likened to an erection) [and] elongated weapons, . . . represent the male member. A frequent, but not very intelligible symbol for the same is a nail-file (a reference to rubbing and scraping?). Accordingly, rockets, stakes, staffs, poles, masts, cigars, trains (fit for tunnels) can serve as symbols for the penis, and frequently are.

Compare with Tao: Steep inclines, ladders, and stairs, and going up or down them, are symbolic representations of the sexual act . . . The dream of walking through a suite of rooms signifies a brothel or a harem. Sigmund Freud. The Interpretations of Dreams (1913), chap. 6. Online.)

Freud's outlooks correspond somehow with ancient outlooks of yin (female), yang (male) and tao (way) in Taoism (Cooper 2010).

However, "Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar," is attributed to Freud, whether he said it or not. Guess what a train that enters a tunnel represents accordingly. (Wikipedia, "Yoni"; "Lingam"; "Maithuna")

Freud's theory of making sexual issues of things and happenings, perhaps vaguely, loosely associated with sexual organs and sex activity, is labelled a reductionist theory. It is libido-associated reductionism, one can add. A "thing" in itself, fair and square, may be different than the reference to it, alluded, symbolic or otherwise. A down-to-earth view to compare with: "A pole is a pole." (Wikipedia, "Reductionism")

Freud once said to his then "crown prince", Dr Carl Gustav Jung (1875–1961): "My dear Jung, promise me never to abandon the sexual theory. That is the most essential thing of all." Freud wanted his sexual theories to bulwark against the black tide of mud of occultism, as he formulated it. Jung remained a follower of Freud for many years, but eventually challenged Freud on his sexual theory. In chapter five of his book Memories, Dreams, Reflections (1995), Jung writes about Freud's sexual theories and his own position. The two theorists differ slightly about libido (sex drive). Jung came to develop a broader view than Freud about it. He believed the libido was not just sexual energy, but instead "generalised psychic energy". [◦Differences between Jung and Freud]

Calvin S. Hall (1909-1985) developed a cognitive theory of dreams and sought to find the meaning of dreams by waking up dreamers and asking them how they felt - and got many interesting responses. He had got over 50,000 dream reports when he died. His cognitive theory was based on his belief that dreams were a sort of conceptualised life experiences, and included the environment a dreamer lives in, and how a dreamer perceives himself or herself. So, interpreting dreams is in part in step with not judging merely by surfaces or appearances (Fergusson 1983:10; WP, "Calvin S. Hall"). [More]

Going far away from nature's designs and schemes of coping and of thriving balances may get us into distress, held Freud and wrote a book called Civilization and Its Discontents (1929). There are good points in it too, derived from Freud's sexual theory and libido outlooks.

Preferred sayings

A loner all his life may not get jolly or all right children to enjoy the company of.

A divorcee and his pre-marriage assets are soon enough parted.

A fool and his assets are soon parted.

Bad assets drive out good; it had better be the other way around.

Assets aren't everything - Many best things in life used to be free, and the air still is -

Without assets the Church would fall asunder.

Assets talk, and many without assets walk.

What you have, hold, or fear getting old.

Some assets grow on trees - apples, pears and further.

Many assets can buy into misery eventually.