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A young girl colors her brown hair blond, starves herself razor thin and dresses suggestively because she wishes to be identified as sexy.

A middle aged man colors his gray hair brown, adorns himself in ash-washed denim, and speeds through town in a red sports car. He wishes not to be identified as old.

But the most compelling, if illusive, identifier is that of money-the possession or lack of it supplanting the real persons we were meant to be.

One day the young girl will mature to that place where she can find beauty in the person she is. And unable to fight the aging process, the middle aged man will likely appreciate the wisdom which sprouted the wrinkles in his face.

But what of the hundreds of thousands of people who can not sit still long enough to realize that when all is said and done, that money is little more than a tool? That it is a navigational instrument conceived to help us to function in our world? As such, its primary purpose is to alleviate the struggles and the stresses of life.

Abraham Maslow once described a hierarchy of needs common to all of humankind. Maslow theorized that before we can pursue lofty and philosophical idealism, each of us must first be suited up with the basics. Needs like love and recognition, food and housing must first be met. Understandably so.

So why do some insist that money accomplish tasks it was never designed to perform? Tasks like making one feel worth based on the size of one's investment portfolio? Or, like the young girl and the middle aged man's hair color change, why is it money's responsibility to make us feel acceptable to onlookers we don't even know or may never meet?

Is it because somewhere along the way we have cultivated the notion that money is the ultimate panacea? Whatever the problem, money can fix it?

If governments disposed of all the money in the universe for one week, and if people were told it would never again exist, how would some discern their true identity. Without money, how would the system work? Such circumstances strongly suggest that properly used, money is a tool pretty much like traffic lights. And improperly employed, Money becomes much like a good hair color job.

It dazzles for a while until it fades away and one's roots are exposed.

Learn more about this author, Pat Dowdy.
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