What the world needs more of is proportionality

I don’t have a fancier term for it right now, but I have this particular philosophy with regard to relationships: proportionality.

I believe that the measure of what some act is worth is not so much any absolute value of the act (like price, etc.) but rather the intrinsic worth of that act to the person doing it, and the intent for which it was done.

For instance, a billionaire can easily buy a hundred diamond rings. So when he gives a girl one of them, just how special is that?

On the flip side, if a person of modest means (that’s most people) decides to save up for months to buy a humble gold necklace… isn’t that supposed to be worth a lot more?

I think part of the problems we have in life involves our unwillingness to judge people by the proportionality of their actions. Instead we seem to always want absolutes. All too often we hear things like "You only see me once a week," or, "You could have gotten me more flowers…" Whatever happened to, "I know this meant a lot to you, and took a lot from you, so I really, really appreciate it?"

* special personal note *
In any case, I know you’re reading this, since you just told me you were, so I’d like to thank you for all the times you made the effort to do things for me, even if I sometimes didn’t acknowledge them. I just hope you also realize how many times I really did do my best to do what I could. It may not have been much in the grand scheme of things, but it was a big chunk of what I had to give.
* end of special personal note *

Proportionality changes, mind you. As our lives change, so do our opportunities to interact with each other. So if it USED to be a big deal, but now more can be done but isn’t, then suddenly that person you’re doing things for is no longer really as important to you. However, the opposite holds true, if you had more time back then to do things for someone, but have since gotten more busy, doing the same thing requires greater sacrifice. So it should mean more.

Until I get a better name for it, it’ll be this: Proportionality. It may not sound like much, but to me it means a whole lot.