Character

They say money makes the world go round. Whoever 'they' are, they've obviously spent too long in their dungeons. Money comes and goes, it gets us things, it takes things from us, but it doesn't always make an impression on us.
Sure, some people are changed by money, or the lack of it, but they needn't be and it certainly can't be taken for rule that they will be.
I'll tell you what I've found: it's characters that make the world go round. From the nasties to the lovelies, in real life and in the fiction of books and t.v and film. Each and every person - and sometimes not even a person's - character is known by someone or something and will, inevitably, make an impression.
Can you imagine a world where nobody made an impression on another? We'd all function like robots. In fact, we probably wouldn't even do that - where would we have learned to be like a robot?
Imagine, right now in your head, a person you've never met before. They will, undoubtedly, hold characteristics of many people you have met before. Imagine your ideal house. Again, your taste has been picked up from the characteristics of so many places and things you've seen in the past.

For me, this is why stories and novels are so important. They allow characters and personalities to be picked up from bits and pieces of one writer's whole life and transmitted to the minds and lives of thousands of others. And once you've read a character, you can't unread it. So, from the humble gesture of reading a few lines of writing, one can become as cultured and travelled as the next man.

What's more, there's something comforting about immersing yourself amongst wholly life-like, but essentially non-existent, characters. You can indulge in knowing their inner most thoughts and feelings with no regard for self-awareness as one would normally have in real life. You can feel a part of a character's world while merely being a bystander. And you're safe in the knowledge these characters want absolutely nothing from you - they exist purely for your entertainment.