A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.

WorthFirst, we need to establish that the proverb “a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush” implies that the worth of these two things match. My opponent claims that something being worth the other does not equate to something being equal to the other. Worth : having a value of, or equal in value to, as in money. having property to the value or amount of: They are worth millions. [1] So we see that the proverb does imply that the bird in hand and bush are equal in value. If that was not meant to be the case, the proverb would read “a bird in the hand is worth more than two in the bush.” Gained ValueLet’s move on to evaluate some other things in Con’s case. He says that my case was not fitting for the proverb because it is too limiting. Yet it is fitting, because the proverb gives clear guidelines in its structure to follow. You cannot assume that what you have risked will be significantly less or equal to what you might gain. This is because the proverb already tells us that there are two birds, rather than one bird, when the birds have been assigned any other values.My opponent says that we cannot be sure of the value of something until we have it. This is not necessarily the case. We can use our own judgment to know the value of something to come. For example, we can weigh a future job with our current job. When we go into the interview, we can get a feel for the type of boss. We can ask him how much the pay raise will be. We can ask what the job specifications and workload are. We can ask what the benefits, such as insurance coverage, will be. We can ask the longevity and security of the job. We can get a sense of the atmosphere by observing the current employees. So as you see, we get a pretty clear sense of what it is we are attempting to acquire. Therefore, based on our own ability to judge, we know when what we see is of higher value than what we might have at the time being. Just like we know two birds are in the bush when only one bird is in the hand. So what we see will be of greater value than what we currently have. Now the question is whether the risk of losing what we have outweighs what we could potentially gain. This is where my opponent falls short because he assumes that the odds of gaining something can be determined by a set value when this is never the case in life. Value of RiskIn fact, when a person gives up everything they have to pursue something, the odds are highly in their favor that they will gain that thing. This is the power of going after what you want against the self-defeating compliance with sticking to what you know. When a person sets their mind on something and believes that they will gain it, it becomes their reality. [2] We also know that life contains an infinite amount of value, and anything we loose can be gained again. So the risk of losing what you have is generally not that great. If one is determined to have something, then the loss of other things are not important. Let’s go back to the job example. One will risk their current job to find one that is more suiting to what they want in life. This has a MUCH greater set of values because it makes one happier and more confident. With happiness about one’s career, there will be an exponential amount of further opportunities to be gained. Risking one thing to gain another opens the door for more things to be gained. Say they loose the job and don’t get the one they applied for either. Well, there are infinite amount of other opportunities to gain jobs. They weren’t happy with the job anyway. They might struggle for a while, and in the worse case, go homeless. It’s not as bad as you think it is when you have a goal that you want to reach. Finding shelter is as simple as finding a friend or finding an empty building. Finding food is a simple as knowing that it will be provided to you. With determination towards a pursuit, it is highly probably to be gained. On the other side, sticking to what one has when there is the chance for something greater does nothing but make them compliant and depressed. Compliancy decreases ones chance of success. Keep the door closed and you won’t go outside. Stay inside and you stay in darkness. Open the door though, and you walk outside. Walk outside and enjoy the light. Enjoy the light and you find yourself coming to bigger and better doors. So the question to you readers is, do you want to step up to the plate and go after what CAN and WILL be in your life, or do you want to be stuck in a box with no change and growth? 1. http://dictionary.reference.com... 2. http://www.successconsciousness.com...