ዋጋ የለውም!

While driving back home from church service ( kidase), an elderly lady whom I am giving a ride thanked me for the ride and the service at church. She said " May God bless you abundantly. May he give you health, success, wisdom, wealth, peace, long life....etc. I consider myself so lucky to receive this kind of blessing from an elderly woman. All I can say is "Amen" and believe that God will guarantee all those blessings to come to my life.

She asked me " When do you start school"

I said " This coming Monday"

The lady says " Oh, you are not gonna come to church to serve and finish the fasting? "

I said " Unfortunately not "

The lady as she gets out from the car said " Its OK, you have served God and us this far. God brought you to America to get education. My son, if you are in America, education is important, without it you are nothing."  The words that she used was "ያልተማረ ዋጋ የለውም"

I thought about the saying "ያልተማረ ዋጋ የለውም" and began to elaborate the meaning of  "ዋጋ የለውም". The best translation for "ዋጋ የለውም" is " Worthless". How can someone be worthless, or worth absolutely nothing? or has no value? What is the measure of a man? How is contribution to the society measured? 

The saying is too deep and true because in today's society a person is measured by the number of certificates that hang in his/her wall and the universities that he or she graduates from. Wherever we go and whatever we do the "price tag" or  the "ዋጋ" is tagged with us. Anyone can see how much a person is worth by the way he or she carries oneself, the diction or word choice, the attire one wears, the car one drives, and the house one owns. We can trick others by seemingly raising the "price tag" higher, either by changing our attire or borrowing a whip from a friend whose " price tag" is higher; however we can not lie to the "ዋጋ" or "the price tag" we give ourselves. 

As I thought about the different ways we, Habesha's use "ዋጋ የለውም", I have compiled a few saying that use ዋጋ የለውም and I hope you will add some more ዋጋ የለውም sayings. 

ያልተማረ ዋጋ የለውም

ያለጤና ገንዘብ ዋጋ የለውም

ያለ ነፃነት ልማት ዋጋ የለውም

" የፈረንጅ አስታራቂ እና የእህል አረቂ እራስ ከማዞር በስተቀር ዋጋ የለውም " ፊታውራሪ አመዴ ለማ

ጫማህ ቀዳዳ ከሆነ ዣንጥላ መያዝህ ዋጋ የለውም

ሕይወት ከሌለ ማንኛውም ነገር ዋጋ የለውም።

መላው ሕዋሳታችን ካልጾሙ የምግብና መጠጥ ጾም ብቻ ዋጋ የለውም

ምግብ ያለ ነጻነት ዋጋ የለውም lol 

ዝም ብሎ ሃገሬ ሃገሬ ማለቱ ዋጋ የለውም

እኔ ከሞትኩ (ሰርዶ አይብቀል) or ዋጋ የለውም