Page 30 of All That Has Flown Beyond
“Oh, well…areyou starving?”
“No. Iamhungry, though. And it’s my sandwich. I bought the ingredients. I spent the time making it. Should I give every sandwich away?”
“I mean…no…”
“And I didn’t ask you what I should do with my sandwich. I asked you how much it is worth.”
“I…I don’t know. I don’t know. I don’t even know what’s in the sandwich!”
“Lettuce, tomato, ham, cheese, mayonnaise, mustard. The bread is lightly toasted and has seeds in it.”
“I…I don’t know. Five dollars.”
“So, it’s worth money?”
“I mean…yes? You just asked me…”
“I asked you how much it was worth. Your reply is, five US dollars with the current inflation rate. That is money. It is worth money.”
“I…I don’t…I don’t know. I don’t know.” Kaiyo shook his head.
“Which factors did you use to decide how much the sandwich was worth?”
“I…the ingredients. What sandwiches like that normally sell for.”
“I see. Anything else?”
“Um…no?”
“And yet you told me to give it away to the poor man.”
“Well. He’s starving.”
“But then I lose five dollars. If I gave every sandwich to every poor man, I would have nothing left. ThenIwould be a poor man.”
“I…okay. I get you’re trying to make a point, but I’m sorry. I don’t know what you want.”
“Is the sandwich’s worth static?”
“What?”
“Does it have one worth—five dollars—and is this something that is intrinsic to the sandwich and therefore will not change in different situations?”
“Uh…no?”
“What would make it have a different value?”
“Um…I don’t know, if it went bad?”
“Then it would no longer be my sandwich as it is now. Do not change the sandwich. That cannot be changed, as we live in this moment with this sandwich. What isthissandwich worth?”
Kaiyo was going to pull the hair out of his head if he heard the word ‘sandwich’ one more time.
“I don’t know. I don’t know. Please just tell me. I seriously don’t know.”
Akiko looked at him for a moment. Her expression had barely changed from the start of the conversation, a nonchalant, searching look that seemed ambivalent about what it found.
“As you wish. The sandwich, like all things in the universe, has value. It is worthsomething. That is something which cannot be argued with. Nothing,nothing, has no value.
