Monaco is far away from a money game
When you think about Monaco, what will appear in your mind? Princess Grace Kelly? Casino Royale? Monte Carlo? For me, Monaco is more than just the playground of the rich and famous. I had quite the opposite feeling about it.
I visited Monaco when I was traveling in the French Riviera. Although people in Monaco speak French and the land is reachable by the French train, Monaco doesn’t belong to France. It is an independent sovereign country.
The most signature building of Monaco. Casino de Monte-Carlo, close to Place de Casino and Casino Cafe, is a baroque architecture.
Monaco is smaller than Central Park and the landform is mountainous. Houses are built along the cliffs. I remembered climbing the endless hills until my legs were sore. Guess it’s not a problem for people driving along with their fancy sports cars. It might be different during the Monaco Grand Prix, a Formula One motor racing event held annually on the Circuit de Monaco. However, I don’t recall seeing that many luxury car brands when I was walking up the street in Monaco.
It might be my prejudice that since Monaco is the party land of fame. People from upper-class society will look down on everyone, as the Chinese would say, have their eyes growing on the top of their heads. And the others will act obsequiously towards these men of wealth to gain the advantage. But it was quite the contrary.
People are very polite and friendly. They are not friendly in an overly passionate way. They will address you as monsieur or mademoiselle and greet each other with gentle nods and firm eye contact. People standing next to you will open the door for you, and he or she doesn’t work for the place. It’s solely a kind gesture they do for you. Who said Chivalry is dead?
It might be that I was walking alone as a young female so I receive a nicer welcome. I have no intention to irritate the Feminists here. But I usually avoid traveling alone because my small female figure might make me an easy target. Monaco seemed like a pretty safe place, so once in a blue moon, I stroll on the street by myself.
I might have sugar-coated it with too much romance. But I like how people in Monaco control the perfect distance between each other. They are not too pushy or flirty to scare you off. Most Europeans don’t care about impressing you as a muscular man. They don’t pull the playboy style “Hey, how are you doing?” like Joey in Friends. But they are also not too shy to avoid eye contact either. It’s the proper respect you can show to another person. It seems so natural but it’s not that easy to get it just right.
When I was in a French class, there was a fill-in-the-blank quiz as below, The ______ are looking for work.
The correct answer is “The young are looking for work.” However, my Thai classmate and I both filled in “The poor is looking for work.” When my teacher saw the answer that we filled in, she frowned and indicated that there was nothing wrong with the answer. But it is an unwritten consensus that it’s tacky and inappropriate to speak of money so obviously.
Although Chinese praise the God of wealth and wish each other to get rich during Chinese New Year. It doesn’t mean that we only concern about money. Chinese pay great attention to family and value the quality of living in harmony. It’s different culturewise to discuss the matter of money.
The movie Grace of Monaco talked about former Hollywood star Grace Kelly, who didn’t have an aristocratic background, dealing with her failed marriage and identity crisis with the noble family of Prince Rainier.
Vanity Fair is the story of one young woman’s rise to the top of England’s shallow upper-class society and her swift fall.
The moral lesson from another novel, The Great Gatsby, is that the attainment of great wealth and status as a socialite is merely illusory.
Money and fame never seem to be the way to achieve happiness. In contrast, They strike you down like thunder and lightning. While you’re still up there paddling your feet in the cloud of vanity, your emotion goes down faster than the raindrops fall on the ground.
You thought you will be content with the sense of achievement, yet in fact, you realize that you become an empty hollow, and nothing impresses you anymore because you have seen it all and done it all. You can still be the most miserable person even if you own the entire world. Money and fame don’t bring you happiness, Your state of mind does.
Being bored means that you are fortunate. Because you don’t have real problems in life.
I don’t usually care for sports movies. But recently I watched an old movie called Invincible because of the action star Mark Wahlberg. Invincible is based on the true story of Vince Papale, a former schoolteacher and part-time bartender, who suddenly becomes the oldest rookie football player. Of course, he got all the ridicule he could get. He received a note that reads,
“You will never go anywhere. You will never make any money, and you will never make a name for yourself.”
I thought to myself that this is a message to me. I will never make any money from my writing since I have no plans to sell anything. I will probably never become famous because there are so many professional writers out beating me. But why am I still writing here?
I stop asking myself why I want to do it and what I try to achieve. I only ask myself a simple question, “Do you want to do it or not?”
And I realize that I don’t care about any of it. I’m addicted to writing. I want to write.
The Cathedral of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception. It’s sometimes called Saint Nicholas Cathedral or Monaco Cathedral.
The mood of the “Cathedral” transforms from despair and isolation to a sense of hope. There was a time when I ran into someone playing a pipe organ in a church and I was deeply touched. Even though I don’t have a religion, the peaceful atmosphere of the church can always reduce my anxiety.
I admit that I am not very organized with my writing. I write down whatever pops up in my head. I learn to accept my character defects at the moment. Because I am still in the stage of practicing.
No matter what you do is a practice. If you are always in a bad mood, then you are practicing being in a bad mood. But if you learn to practice a positive mood, things will usually turn around.
It’s not likely to become exactly the person that we dream of being. If we can all be who we want to be, I will probably see 5 Mark Wahlberg on my way to the coffee shop. I just have to embrace the imperfection of myself because for better or for worse, this is who I am.
Thank you for bearing with me until the last sentence. Please clap as many times as you can and follow me if you haven’t. I sincerely appreciate your support.
