Lost - Sora
People sometimes ask me, “Sora, why did you join the Pearls. How can you believe in what they do? What they stand for? Aren’t there some things that are simply priceless? Aren’t you degrading people, degrading dreams, to mere property?”
And I want to tell them, no, don’t you see, that everything, every action, is done because of cost and benefit. The easiest example is what we buy. Why do some people prefer Starbucks, and others the local deli? It’s price, and benefit, and cost. For some, the cost of Starbucks is worth it. For others, it’s too rich for their blood.
Take that now on a larger scale. What we wear. What we drive. The jobs we take. But even smaller. The friends we have. The grudges we hold. The arguments we refuse to lose.
Tough love. True love. Anger. Forgiveness. It’s all a balancing act in the end, when you think about it. Do you pursue your crush, and risk your heart, for the potential to win his heart? Or do you slink away, cutting your loses, as it’s better to dream that it could happen than face the cold harsh reality that he doesn’t want you after all?
Some costs are so great we can’t even contemplate them, like betrayal. Some are so small we don’t even acknowledge them, like when we drop everything to go to the bathroom and when we choose to wait until after the game, no matter how uncomfortable.
There’s a beauty in it, I think. The way it all interacts. The way that love and fear, desire and lust, play out in a beautiful dance we call the market. What drives a man to cheat on his wife, and drives another to pass? What makes the girl pine for the star quarterback when the debate team president has loved her since grade school?
And then, you wonder, how much are those dreams worth, and what are the costs? Would the girl really give everything up for that one date? When the price is high, the cost so much, I think we step back and think, is this what I really want? Are you willing to lose it all to gain your hearts desire? Or do you find happiness in what you have? What is the cost of your pretty face, your love, your sorrow, your tears? You want the date, but do you want the broken heart? Is it worth it?
I don’t deal in desire lightly. Dreams aren’t something that you toss a penny at and hope for the best. Perhaps we do treat them just like chattel, but then, is your own heart, your own wish, what you crave most, really chattel to you? That’s the thing about the market, that the prices are never the same from one day, one moment, one person to the next. Property isn’t a thing. It’s a set of relationships between us. Sale, ownership, gifts, it’s all human created. And as the relationships change, so does the value.
Pearls push the boundaries. We make you wonder what drives yourself. What are your needs your wants, from the smallest fleeting impulse to the greatest passion in the depths of your soul? We’re not whores and devils, serpents in the garden. We’re just doing the same thing you’re doing, looking at our lives, finding out what matters to us, weighing the benefits and the costs of our own actions. And we help others find those desires and we’ll help them achieve it too. But to work with us is not something to be taken lightly. We ask you to think, to feel, to really look at yourself. And ask yourself the eternal question. . .why do I act this way?
And as for me? I do it because I enjoy the flow, seeing it all work. I enjoy making the dreams of others come true. I like the contracts, the twists and turns of getting there. I like to see the true soul of the person across the table for me. And I have my own dreams and desires, that like all of us, I trade for the dreams and desires of others. The only difference is that I’m willing to call it that. Trade.
As for my price? Like all of us, it depends what you’re offering. I know what tempts me. And my heart’s desire? I know what it is. And I also know what it’s worth, and the lengths I’d go to, the prices I’d pay, to achieve it.
Can you say the same thing?