This clip is from Morgan Spurlock’s film, The Greatest Movie Ever Sold. In it, Sut Jhally explains how diamonds are falsely marketed as being “rare” to both rich and poor people.

Americans exchange diamond rings as part of the engagement process, because in 1938 De Beers decided that they would like us to. Prior to a stunningly successful marketing campaign in 1938, Americans occasionally exchanged engagement rings, but it wasn’t a pervasive occurrence. Not only is the demand for diamonds a marketing invention, but diamonds aren’t actually that rare. Only by carefully restricting the supply has De Beers kept the price of diamonds high.

Countless American dudes will attest that the societal obligation to procure an engagement ring is both stressful and needlessly expensive. But here’s the thing – this obligation only exists because the company that stands to profit from it willed it into existence...

Does The Universe really need to tell you how amazing your Earth-plane existence is? The very act of you being here, experiencing what you are experiencing is a miracle in and of itself. You are blessed! ~ Creator

Silence is in the eyes of the beholder. Everything is in the eyes of the beholder. There is subjective. There is no objective even as you think so. No two see alike. How do you even know that you see the same colors or hear the same music as another? Senses are helpful, yet they do not tell the whole story. Sometimes you want to suspend all that you think you know and be a fresh slate who sees with clear eyes. Clear eyes are eyes of love.
 
When you see a group of children, and you see your child as extremely beautiful, you are right. You are closer to Truth. And when you see all the children as beautiful, you see even closer to Truth. And when you see My light beaming out from everyone you come across, then you are Truth, and you take no days off from it. You are immersed in Truth, and you are the beauty that you see. The world is fictitious except when you see Truth underneath it all.
 
Life has a different story to tell that is outside the common domain, meaning that the world is not really a composite of what you have been taught. Many in the world are not thinking but rather going along. It takes great courage to see from your own eyes when you are told to take as fact what another may see. Who can take the right to tell you what you see when you are the only one who can know what you see and what you make of it – when you give yourself a chance to see for yourself, that is.
 
It is a shaky world that changes shape right in front of you. Seeing is believing? Perhaps believing is seeing is more accurate.
 

It’s tough not to be disappointed with people sometimes. We’re taught to be so reliant on others for our own lives that when they fall short of our expectations, we end up being pretty unhappy about it. But maybe it’s time to rethink what our expectations are.

Don’t expect people to fit a mold that you’ve made for them.

People are independent. They are who they are, completely independent of the people around them, and that includes you. If someone doesn’t do what you want them to, that’s more your problem than theirs in most cases. So embrace people for who they are. Help them if they need it, but let them be themselves.

Don’t rely on other people for your own well-being.

Look, I know it’s hard, especially when you’re in a relationship with someone, but you need to have a life set up for yourself where you can get by just fine without anyone else helping you along, be it functionally or personally. At the end of the day, you’re the boss of you, and you should rely on yourself for happiness.