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Not for Sale

It is beyond questioning that we came to earth with bare hands, and we will eventually leave it bare-handed too. We never came with jewels on our wrists, property ownership documents in our hands, and crowns on our heads. No matter what we gain in between birth and death, we will go back with none of the above under our control and demand. My message is not to scare myself or the readers. I am simply sharing mere truth about how materials work, and where they should be positioned. Materials and money are definitely good and necessary. It is not a shame or a disgrace if we devote a great deal of our precious age to gain them, but the two argumentative vital questions are: how do we gain them and how do we spend them? A possibly convincing answer to the first question is prioritized here. 

Let’s suppose that someone lives eighty years. The first twenty years are devoted to physical wellbeing and education. The last twenty years are expected to set for harvesting what one has sowed in their past. The forty years in-between are relatively expected to be the four decades of hardship to build a capital from the materialistic viewpoint. However, the same forty years are also, not the golden, but could be the only invaluable time, one may possess to build their identity and character with apparent values, dignity, respect and overall personality, i.e. characteristics that represent the person far beyond his/her materialistic properties. Sorry for being frank here, but during those years, one could build an abhorred identity as a lying, rude, disrespectful, dishonest, thieving, bossy, inferior or superior person or a combination of some or most of these together. People with these characteristics may bargain their identity and offer it for sale in sacrifice for materialistic gains or simply to hypocritically hide one or more of those undesirable features. 

On the shiny part of personality image, there are those who utilize their entire forty years or more of their typical age period to construct their identity value by value. They don’t claim to have, but do work to be recognized, by authentic manifestation of values such as respect, love, honesty, humbleness, trustworthiness, appreciativeness, empathy, emotional intelligence and reliability, to count but a few. These types of people never bargain their identity for whatever materialistic gains are offered to them. They won’t compromise their values for money, managerial hierarchy or any type of property. The reason is not the fear of disgrace in their community. Actually, they fear losing self-respect, they are horrified of looking at themselves in the mirror only to find a different person from the one they had worked their life to build. They get terrified of finding themselves cheap, and easily put for sale. That’s why they position their values ahead and above everything else, and for that they will win spiritual peace and the society’s respect even after their death. These people are NEVER for sale!

Prof. Dr. Rauf Kareem Mahmood Rauf Kareem Mahmood was born in the town of Penjwen (Slemani - Sulaymaniyah) in 1975. He has been teaching English and Linguistics at the University of Sulaimani for over twenty years. He has worked at Qaiwan International University as supervisor of Center of Pedagogy and Academic Development. Earlier, he worked as college dean for ten years at University of Human Development. He is also a trainer and consultant of professional communication skills.