When we were little, a five-dollar bill, a couple of coins, a single loonie meant a lot. It meant that bar of chocolate, that bag of chips, that box of candy. We saw our parents’ loose change, wished for weekly allowance or a reward for a job well done. We hoped that the few jingling coins would give us what our youthful minds desired more than anything in the entire world, a world where the power of a single dollar, four quarters, ten dimes, twenty nickels, a hundred pennies ruled everything.

Then, we were teenagers. We wanted those iPods, MP3s, laptops, Gameboys, any gadgets our friends had,  any invention we absolutely, devastatingly ‘needed’ to survive in our world, a new world. As we walk down the streets, through the malls, into the cinemas, our eyes lit up with excitement at all the possibilities: the new shirts, new jeans, the fastest computer, the trendiest backpack, the best bike. Soon, those pennies weren’t enough anymore, not enough to quench the thirst of our wanting hands and yearning hearts.

And here we are.

We are grown-up. We now live in a world where minds swim with the image of a dollar sign, wallets are never full enough, bank balances can never have too many zeros. Between the cars, houses, travel, good food, presents and babies, pennies are worthless; dimes and nickels don’t add up; quarters and loonies are just used to get grocery carts from the Food Basics a couple blocks down. We never have enough money, enough stuff, enough time.

Then again, what is ‘enough’ anyway?