Your Last Two Dollars

There is an old Chi­nese say­ing that goes some­thing like, “If you get down to your last two coins, spend one for bread and the other for a flower.” There is a lot of wis­dom in that say­ing. Our need for beauty is equal to our need to sur­vive. Jesus had a sim­i­lar say­ing, “Man does not live by bread alone…”. The Greeks would sum­ma­rize it as the need for, “the good, the beau­ti­ful, and the true.”
We know most about ancient civ­i­liza­tions from the art they left behind, not what they had for lunch. Humans are inher­ently cre­ators too. The term “starv­ing artist” says it all for some. Peo­ple make pot­tery and paint, even if they can’t seem to pay all of the bills. They are a blessed lot. Their bod­ies may be hun­gry, but their souls are sat­is­fied.
What per­cent­age of your life is ded­i­cated to putting bread on the table, and what per­cent­age is spent on the arts? Maybe we should expand the lat­ter to include sports and all that has noth­ing to do with sheer phys­i­cal sur­vival. Per­son­ally, I include reli­gion under the head­ing of the arts. It is a bit of a sport too. I think that is why I can go at it seven days per week.
How bal­anced is your life? What hob­bies have you aban­doned? How long has it been since you did some­thing that had no “prac­ti­cal” value? Is there a bal­ance between your work and play? If you got down to your last two dollars…