ALPINE, UT | 24 March 2008 | Sometimes life gets so bad you just want to push the reset button and start the game over. This is, in effect, what one Australian man is attempting to do by using his Human Life Value to auction all of his property and board the first available plane to anywhere. His five-year old marriage to “the best girl in the world” went awry and now he’s looking for a way out. This sale includes all his worldly possessions including clothing, home, toys, friends, other acquaintances, and his job. Hmm…I wonder if that also includes the remnants of the marriage?

Key Points:

• Ian Usher, 44, has put everything to do with his current life on the eBay auction block in a package deal.
• He is hoping to walk away with ?230,000.
• His employer said they would give the winning bidder a two-week trial at his job with permanent status if everything works out after that.
• The Telegraph reports Usher as saying, “I am looking forward to moving on, and shedding the past. I am excited about the future, and really having no idea where events might lead me. I love the adventurous nature of the project, and am excited about a new start…Everything here is connected with that past life, and as I cannot have that life any more, then I don’t want to hang on to it desperately.”
• His friends suggest it is just a mid-life crises.
• Usher has created a website to promote the sale of his “life.” www.alife4sale.com

Conclusion:

While surely everyone would like the opportunity, at times, to do as Mr. Usher is attempting, the nature of life suggests that the stewardships we engage in are not as simple as selling everything and somehow starting over. That will, indeed, get rid of the material possessions of one’s life, but it will do nothing for the memories and the relationships that person leaves behind. The stewardship of life suggests that we use our agency to learn to overcome our trials and to increase our knowledge, experience and abilities; in short, to increase our Human Life Value. Running from every trial in our lives may appear to solve the problems, but when life is over what will we be able to say about our stewardship called life? Still, perhaps one can admire the resolve of such an individual to just dump everything pertaining to the current life and disappear into another life, another identity, another stewardship, maybe even a life worth loving.

Action Steps:

1. In a journal or a notebook, spend one hour writing everything you are thankful for and love about your life. Don’t think about the negative things or the things you don’t love at this time, unless you are truly thankful for them.
2. Write about the challenges in your life and how they, specifically can be for your good. Record some of the possible lessons you might learn from those experiences.

Reference(s):

Date: Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Source: Telegraph, “Australian Auctions Entire Life on eBay”
Author: Lewis Carter
MRFC Principles: (3, 4, 6)