Money.
Money has come to be a very serious thing. If you have it or if you don't have it has become a fundamental measure of identity.
There was a time when wealth was considered the most important thing, and wealth is very different from money. Wealth measures the accumulation of precious things. It may be gold or diamonds. It may be land or cattle or wives or children. Your wealth may be the valuable skills or experience you have accumulated. Wealth is a very different thing from money.

Wealth is very easy to accumulate, but it is not easy to exchange. The rate of exchange between cows and experience would be a matter for constant debate. It is unlikely that there would be time for art or space exploration or soap opera's.

Money is a representation of wealth. To start with, money was the actual precious metal that made up your wealth. Your pile of gold or silver existed as real coinage, and your various posessions and wealth could be valued as a precious metal equivalent. Unfortunately, there is insufficient gold or silver on the planet to meet the requirements of an effective means of exchange. If gold or silver were to be used as an effective vehicle for exchange, we would all have to have some. There isn't sufficient for us all to hold a small stock, so alternatives have to be found.

Money is the mechanism to replace gold as a medium of exchange. Money is a token, a representation of an imaginary amount of precious metal, and as it became further and further divorced from the gold standard, money has become an embodiment of the abstract idea of preciousness itself.
Money has evolved into a precious token.

Love.
Love has come to be a very serious thing. If you have it or if you don't have it has become a fundamental measure of identity.
They say that love changes everything, and it may be true, but it is simpler to say that love changes. Certainly it has for me.

When I was younger love was an electric cable stringing events together. Love was filled with secret lust like the hidden charge of caffeine concealed in the coffee. Love was filled with wonder and unexplored colours.

As I have grown older, love has changed. Now it is more like harmonic resonance. The predictable tug of gravity on the tides. Love takes its form from a rainbow of possibilities like a fleeting moment seen through a kaleidoscope, a unique and fragile pattern.
Love has become an abstract intangible thing, no longer exposed to the world as a blushing poster but cool like the wind and only observed by its effects. Love is the man who gets into your side of the bed to warm it before you arrive. A kind word to console a hidden grief, a smile in the morning. Trying not to fart even though it doesn't matter.
These are the small things that signal the presence of love. Not the love itself, they are the tokens. The words that represent the feelings. The tangible snow forming from the aerial vapour. Words like footprints in the snow, love's precious tokens.

Precious Tokens.

Small coins have a charm about them that is nothing to do with their monetary value. They have a tactile fascination and even the old tired ones have the promise of a cheery sparkle. They are playthings and collectables and they promise a freedom to choose a tiny luxury. As a child, a small coin was not simply a measure of its value, but a promise for the future, perhaps a gift or an expression of love. There is a delight in finding a coin in the street that transcends pence and finds face value in a smile. It is a warm, embracing, benign moment.

Small words are the currency of love. They are the compact expression of impossible feelings. Often they are so predictable that they seem to lose meaning and slide smoothly around our intentions like the lubricant of affection. They transcend their literal value and become emotional playthings, tiny moments of good cheer. Unexpectedly running into an expression of affection raises the spirits and connects us to eachother.

Small coins that carry the simplest messages of love. They are left in the environment for people to find. They are worthless and yet meaningful. Small and unexpected. If you are open to hear it they will speak kind wishes to you.

These are the precious tokens.