Money is a very difficult temptation. I can feel it after watching a TV show about luxury. You start to want the luxury. It bends your mind. It’s difficult.
Last night on the show “Buying Beverly Hills” (reality TV show about a luxury real estate agency – see previous post today) one of the characters is on the phone and says, “God just walked in,” jokingly referring to one of the other people on set. I wasn’t sure who exactly he was talking about, whether a colleague bringing someone to look at the house (because he is a high performer) or the client himself (because he would be making the decision to purchase).
Either way, I cringed when I heard that, and so did my husband. Loudly, like we both said, at the same time: “Oh, no.”
It is very, very revealing when someone says something. As Freud pointed out, “jokes are the royal road to the unconscious.” And so what the joke revealed is that the character worships the person who represents money.
There are other scenes where this person talks about wanting to live down his childhood somehow, maybe he thought he wasn’t good enough. The money is how he’s going to prove himself. This is a very common theme in the show with multiple characters saying the same thing. (“I will go from Maz-derati to Maserati,” says one.)
The Mazda was just fine. It’s more than most of the world has. But once you start looking at all this money, and you start imagining yourself having it, and you start comparing this house and that house, it is so easy for your mind to go the wrong way.
The same person mentioned at the beginning of this post is shown with his family. They have a listing. He wants to sell it. It’s in “The Flats,” a luxury area. They aren’t sure if he is competent enough to sell it. He feels bad about himself. Money, money, money and self-esteem.
Meanwhile, this same guy basically throws away a real opportunity at love. Alexia Umansky, the daughter of Mauricio Umansky and his costar on the show, takes him aside and all but tells him that she loves him. It’s like, man, you obvious love her back! Tell her so! Get married!
But no, he rejects her and says, kind of coldly and sadly: “I have to prioritize my career.”
The money is not God…but boy in LA when you’re surrounded by the money, it is not that hard to understand how people confuse the two.
And separate from the money, but related — there is the ego. The power of being the boss of “The Agency,” which I could not help but think to myself reminded me of the CIA, which is also called “The Agency” but of course is completely different.
And yet…there is Maurico who is clearly at the top of his game. . He seems pretty centered, actually, and very humble. I was very impressed by that, because when people fawn all over you for whatever reason, you can easily become convinced that you’re all that. This is the false (and satanic statement) we hear very often – “I am self-made.”
No you’re not — not at all.
By Dr. Dannielle Blumenthal (Dossy). All opinions are the author’s own. Public domain.
Writing by Dr. Dannielle Blumenthal 