Money + Mind: Healthy Interactions with Community Economy (Freewrite)

Freewrite prompt: What is my relationship with money?

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Yesterday I went to town with my dad to get the rest of the bits and pieces for the woodstove. We have been needing to get some quality stove pipe that will withstand these variable Oregon seasons. Without his monetary assistance, we would not have been able to afford the materials needed to last the winters and be worth the sum cost.
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Part of my movement towards true intentional action includes supporting individuals, businesses and materials that provide a form of wealth or opportunity for those near/far. I knew that the galvanized metal pipes that had been in place off-gas toxicity to some extent, and I am not interested in supporting toxicity in our environment.
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But how can we afford to support only the causes we believe in? It seems like our economy is set up against slow creation and local production, making it hard for small businesses and local merchants to stay above water. Prices for goods should be fair for the time it takes + the value of tools or equipment used in the process + the value of knowledge—that can add up to quite a bit.

Today I thought a lot about money.

I thought about how when I grew up we were poor, but not really poor. We got secondhand clothes from families at school. My parents worked odd jobs until they found ground in their passions. We never had spending money like my friends' families, and we never went on exorbitant vacations.

After having little to no income my first three years of university—with little to no bills or spending cash—I was looking forward to making some money. But the money would slip through my fingers, getting spent on little things, barely noticing the city life differences until I was able to afford the luxuries of eating out more often, going to a movie or getting new clothes.

What I wasn’t grasping was the value of my economic vote. I was wasting translatable opportunity on businesses and work ethics that I didn’t always agree with for the sale.

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If I had seen that the potential monetary savings of a cheaper product is not usually worth the true cost of making it, maybe I would have been wiser about which brands I bought.

If I had understood the difference in power and substantial influence that a small sum can have for a conscious connected human versus an unconscious disconnected human, maybe I would have been wiser about which businesses I supported.

I thought a lot today about someone I know who wastes their money on material things that are totally useless. He gets a good amount of cash each month, all expenses paid, and ends up bone dry the week after getting paid. I can’t help but be astounded by the flow of wealth that he wastes on companies and products that will never reciprocate wealth back into his life.

It’s hard not to think what we could be doing with that much opportunity of wealth that he’s wasting each month. Immediately, I recoil because how do I have the right to say it’s all a waste? Maybe these material goods and plastic bits are really bringing this fellow happiness and closer to his personal unshakeable contentment.

Then I scoff and remind myself that if I support wasteful materialistic humans it’s cyclically supporting destruction of our environment + animal habitats, lifelong enslavement of wage-laborers, and undervaluing craftsmanship + natural traditions + native skills.

At what point do our views become narrow-minded? I draw a boundary for myself, step back coyote, respect other’s choices of free will. But how far back can we stand when it is our choices as a whole that affect this planet + our individual choices which add up to this whole sum conglomerate. Is it fair for me to share my concerns of wealth misplacement, or would my words overstep the many social boundaries we put ourselves in today?

Sometimes I think of money like a bear, as if it could smell your fear. I have been much more stable and conscious of my spending habits since college, and have been working recently on understanding my relationship with money so that I am not scared of it.

There is no reason to be nervous or to lack confidence in accepting + assisting the flow of money. It is a resource that is relatively abundant in the world. My pops said today that you can meet someone with no home, no material goods of worth, but they might have a nickel in their pocket. It made me think even if it’s just a little bit of money, it must be attractive in some sense, magnetic in a way.

My great grandmother used to say “Mind your pennies and your dollars will mind themselves”. While I always thought this to be advice that keeping track of your small expenses will make large bills simple to handle, it did seem a bit like some money magic. Keep a penny in your shoe and maybe you’ll find a dollar in your pocket.

Like a gravitational pull, wealth brings abundance. Wealth can be of knowledge or spirit, community based or grounded in individual relationships. Currency is just a token to express this passing of wealth; a globally accepted form of exchanging power of opportunity.

It seems like we can see that at work here on Steemit, curated content bringing wealth to the community, by and from the community. If we can create a steady flow of wealth through curated humans we can thrive among groups that we support and value, groups who in turn reciprocate these qualities through our lives.

So help me steemians;

How far do we reach our own energies to help support the betterment of the planet?
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Is it pointless to try working with individuals when there is such a global crisis of malaise?
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Would we be better off focusing on our personal paths and hoping everyone just follows suit before it’s really too late?

The planet doesn’t have infinite resources, but how far must we express our individual duty to defend these resources for all future life?

Till next time!