In the Beowulf story, the protaganist explains his reason for traveling from his home country to Heorot. He says, “… I shall fulfill that purpose, prove myself with a proud deed…” (Lines 636-637 in Seamus Heaney’s translation.)
We understand that there was a cost involved, in terms of time and effort in fitting out a boat and gathering a crew to sail with him. It’s hard to imagine there not also being some monetary cost in putting such an expedition together.
And what was the reason? As stated by Beowulf, it was to “…prove myself with a proud deed….”
The reasoning sounds quite emotional. And it is.
So, how does this relate to hledger? Is it that some spending decisions are emotional and some are not?
One surprising thing I once learned is that all spending decisions are emotional in origin. If you ask why you decided to buy something, you may at first come up with an answer that is not emotional. For example, “Why did you buy that vacuum cleaner?” The answer might be “I did some research and that was the best value vacuum cleaner.” There is no obvious emotion there.
But if you continue, asking “And why did you want to get the vacuum cleaner that was the best value?” Then, the answer can become something like “I don’t want to get a cheap, inferior product. And I don’t want to buy something much more expensive that is perhaps only marginally better than something at half the cost.” These are all reasons that resonate with me, and they are emotional.
It’s not that emotions are bad. It’s just that they are there behind the reasons for our purchases.
Beowulf states clearly the emotion behind his decision to sail from Geatland to Heorot. Similarly, we would do well to understand the emotions behind the purchases we eventually enter in plain text accounting.
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