Dedication

Merriam-Webster: 2: a devoting or setting aside for a particular purpose.

Everything we do, we do with a purpose. Hence, everything requires in some degree dedication.
That is fairly obvious, but it leads to observations rarely conscious.
Dedication goes in many forms, be it the time dedicated to head a story, the money spent on a restaurant with a loved one, effort done to find that special object you've always wanted or even the amount of self inflicted suffering to win the championship. But one thing among all forms of dedication is that it ain't "free". It may not cost you money, but will certainly take something from you. That is why dedication is a luxury commodity, and like all commodities it is worth something.
Now this may as well be the revelation. Dedication has a value, for each person, their efforts, time, money, happiness, etc, has a common value, which explains why we do things one way over the other, it may as well be a numeric decision.
People rarely think about this, but why does one go to eat a piece of meat costing 40 "moneys" instead of one costing 10 "moneys"? I mean, if you ask someone the answer is simple, 'because it's better'. This is simple, and everyone understands, but the actual meaning is more on the lines of 'because the time and money I have to dedicate to this meal is worth a tasty and more satisfactory meal.'
This is simple association between value and dedication. Same logic goes when you ask the same person why don't they eat the 40 "moneys" meat everyday, with the exception of rich people, as people's money goes down, it's value rises which means that dedicating a higher amount of money on the best meat isn't worth the satisfaction.
Following through with the implications. Assuming I can treat everything in terms of dedication (like the value of the money you dedicate to something), I dare to say that the amount of dedication expresses directly the worth of something.
So if you go and pay 1000 "moneys" for a ball of ice cream , or you travel 500 miles to eat at a restaurant, those things are really worthy (this of course assuming you aren't just plain crazy =P).
The problem with this, and the source of this trail of thought, is measuring the worth of a person. I'll avoid talking about myself, and my worth, but as I stood watching my cousin's show, I couldn't help but think on this subject.
It was not her first show, just the first one I saw. I got there early, there was another band playing first, but still most of the people in the bar were either friends of hers or family. As the other show progressed, people kept showing up, more and more friends. Maybe 30 people had gone see her show, and I get why... she was awesome. But I think, they would've gone either way, because she is a great person, and her friends must love her and therefore will always be there to support her.
I've known this for a while, but only now I've realized the correlation between dedication and worth. I've always given it to priority. But one's priorities aren't but a quantification of the value of things, the required dedication.
In the end, the old saying was right, time is money, and to do something, you require time, so dedication requires money, how much "money" are you willing to spend on each thing. This is the decision being made every day, by and for, every human.
So think about this the next time.
What is the message you are sending when you choose to do, or not, something?