Casting Pearls Before Swine

The phrase "casting pearls before swine" came up in conversation today. Today, it struck how ridiculous the very concept is, or rather, how ridiculous it shows us to be.

Literally speaking, if you were to give a bunch of pearls to pigs, they wouldn't care. Since the only thing pigs do is eat, sleep, poop, and mate, and since pearls don't help pigs in any of those endeavors, giving pearls to them would be completely worthless.

The point of the phrase is that if you give something incredibly valuable to somebody who does not appreciate it, then you have wasted the item, as well as your effort. What finally struck me today, though, was that pearls are worthless.

Pearls do nothing. They are shiny. That's it. We have based our cultures and our entire economic systems on shiny things. Pearls are merely one example of things that are shiny (and with most shiny things, relatively uncommon). So the very premise of the saying is based on us assuming that a shiny pebble has any value whatsoever.

Not to knock people who like shiny things (even though I just did) - there may not be any use-value in them, but there is something to be said for objects that make us feel good or comforted to own and be near. For swine, though, pearls do not hold that value. In his light, though, the saying is really about values dissonance.

Everybody holds different things in different regards. Some people matter more to you than others. Some objects are worth more to you than others think. Our beliefs are incredibly personal, and anything that is based in entirely in opinion is relative to the individual. It is as true from person to person as it is for humans to swine.

Casting pearls before swine really means that not everybody cares about the things you care about. No need to feel angry, spiteful, or bitter (nor should you feel superior); just remember to keep your pearls to yourself and enjoy them because they make you happy. And realize that a big meal of food scraps are pearls that the swine will not cast before you.