Is IT worth it?

Horror gripped the heart of a World War-I soldier as he saw his lifelong friend fall in a battle. The soldier asked his Commander if he could go out to bring his injured friend back to the bunker. "You can go," said the commander," but I don't think it will be worth it. Your friend is probably dead and you may throw your life away just to recover his corpse.

The commander's words didn't matter, and the soldier went anyway. Miraculously, he managed to reach to his friend, carried him onto his shoulder and brought him back to their company's trench, though his arm got hit with a bullet in the process. The Commander checked the wounded soldier, and then looked kindly at the soldier. "I told you it wouldn't be worth it," the Commander said. "Your friend is dead and you are mortally wounded."

"It was worth it, Sir," said the soldier with a bereaved voice. "What do you mean by worth it?" asked the baffled commander. "Your friend is dead and you have got yourselfommander critically wounded in bargain with salvaging his dead body. How on earth was it worth risking your life for a dead body?”

The soldier, in a heavy tone explained “it was worth it because when I got to him, he was still alive and I had the satisfaction of hearing him say..........."My friend...I knew you'd come.”

Many a time, in our lives we see people make decisions that are far from being logical, and destined to end in a failure. Actions that neither are based on astute observations nor do they comply with conventions; efforts inspired by an inexplicable hunch for something. And we wonder if a particular act that they did was worth what it took. If it was worth the effort, money, craziness, emotions and heart that went into it……and we dissent. But what impediments us to comprehend the apparent bizarre is the absence of the sentience that the person had for what he did, the tenet he believed in, the motivation that propelled him, and the satisfaction that it brought him. There is a sense of satisfaction and cryptic joy that these people experience in doing what they do.

Perhaps it is the same sense of attachment and worth to me that prevents me from replacing the dated, impaired and discolored wrist watch that I wear, despite that fact that it has outlived its technical and mechanical utility. The watch is beyond repair and one might not accept it even for free. Yet I find myself unable to “move on with time”, and carry that piece of metal for no apparent good, something that stupefies my friends and makes them ask – is it worth the inconvenience and embarrassment that it causes?.....Is it worth it?

Whether something is worth it or not is a question that pertains more to human psychology than to economics, it depends on how you compare the outcome with whatever went into making it. This may sound vague to someone who quantifies result by a simple output/input ratio for there is perspective difference between price and worth.

Price is what one calculates after considering the monetary and labour aspects of the investment, coupled with the tangible benefits of something. Whereas worth is how much you value something, it is the sum of your fondness, affection and willingness to sacrifice or bear to hold on to that something. What you describe as "of fathomless worth" may not even have a buyer i.e. of no price, for worth does not commensurate with price, and emotions cannot be justified by rationale. Worth can be realized only by he who values it more than its price, by he who can value the valueless over priceless!