A tree-hugger, an anarchist and a mystic walked into a bar…
We are large, we contain multitudes.
I wanted to transfer a decent amount to Kenny Palurintano (@kennyskitchen) , but six bucks doesn't go far. Even in Mexico. (I know a founder has resigned from Steemit, and I sure as heck miss his upvote! Thanks to everyone who upvotes posts you find value in. I appreciate you, and the time you take to click the upvote button... which is the mechanism that rewards creators. The earnings of this post are also intended for Kenny. And you can give him some bitcoin at: 15bNwnDeT8TfgCMWjvHm4tAjaCArSyNAoN)
And speaking of money rewards...
On one hand, I have guilt-free desire for plenty of cash with which to do lots of good. No dilemma there. Furthermore, I recognize the free market as the most impartial (granting both reward and penalty) source of feedback and self-correction.
But on the other hand, I've always objected to our entire lives being organized around -- basically -- consumption. Always eating and acquiring. Eating and acquiring. Yawn.
I'm much more excited by a life that is organized around harmless creation and production. Conservation and preservation. Regeneration and beautification. Higher valued tasks deemed so by their virtue, rather than their valuation. These are very idealistic notions, and I saw them in effect in Kenny's life, which is why I wanted to bring attention to him. His motives are different. Pure.
Anyway, I got some direct and honest feedback about my chat with Kenny.
It came from a friend and client, Monica Moody. Monica is, among other things, a business consultant and career coach who stands for whole-heartedness in the workplace. We have spent hours envisioning and talking about healed and healthy workplaces that honor its peoples' FULL, TRUE AND FREE SELVES. She's bringing love to corporations. #frontline
I got this note from her a couple days ago, and received permission from both her and Kenny to share it with you:
Thank you for sharing the interview that you did with your friend/colleague, Kenny Palurintano. Very interesting. I felt differently hearing about his experiences than I do when I hear Charles Eisenstein speak about his philosophies and views on money and the gift economy. I think the difference is this.... Charles leaves me inspired, partially because it feels like he's always moving TOWARDS that something greater and less like he's running from something. With him, it is clearly about creating new possibilities for how we might share our gifts. Contrast that with Kenny where it sounded like he was running from money to make a point about how we don't need it. When in actuality, it seems like he's just created a life where he is one step removed as he still relies on people who do choose to use it. It feel illusory.
As I sat with this last night -- after watching a series of videos that left me supremely inspired, including a short video interview of Thich Nhat Han which I posted and an interview that Oprah did with Esther Hicks, I made some definitive conclusions about money. And it feels right.
For me....
It appears that we may be running from money but money is neutral. It's a tool. Much like our bodies that allows us access to certain experiences. Not THE way, just a way. Money is not sick. We are sick. So instead of running from money, it seems that if we are going to run from anything, it should be from our own imaginations about who we are. Not money.
I don't know. It's just something about how the culmination of all of these mini experiences from yesterday landed on me. And I just feel really clear right now. And I wanted to thank you for your role in that. I did not listen to the full interview with Kenny, but what I did hear absolutely gave me what I needed. And I so appreciate your curiosity and your questioning. It's really good stuff, Erika. Cause I know so many are trying to figure this thing out.
I should probably add that there is absolutely "no shade" as the young folks would say, thrown in the direction of Kenny. I appreciate his life, his grapplings and his offerings as much as anyone else. And I am in gratitude for his willingness to allow others to glimpse into his world of experimentations with money.
Thanks for the space to ramble and swirl....
And here is Kenny's reply to Monica:
First, I want to be clear that I have never read/listened to Charles Eisenstein or anyone else theorize about a gift economy, all of my understanding is from personal experience and ideas that came directly to me. The connection for Erika was to her experiences with Eisenstein, but that is definitely not the basis that I have.
Contrast that with Kenny where it sounded like he was running from money to make a point about how we don't need it. When in actuality, it seems like he's just created a life where he is one step removed as he still relies on people who do choose to use it. It feel illusory.
I'm not sure how far you got in the audio, as you mentioned later that you didn't go through the whole thing,. My journey from a life based on money to one where money plays little to no role happened in 3 stages, which were each covered in the interview. In the first, I learned about fractional reserve banking, fiat currency, and the Central Banks, and completely stopped using money (running away as you mentioned). The second step was giving up my job/house/etc and living on the road, simply being of service and actively turning away money when it was offered to me. At the end of 2015, I realized that I had been creating resistance to energy finding its way back to me by being anti-money, and I spent all of 2016 just learning to find the balance. I covered a lot of this journey in an article a couple months ago as well (read here).
Most of my life doesn't have money involved at all, it's maybe 20-25% where it is "one step removed" as you mentioned. Events I do direct energy exchange to attend, nobody is paying anything. When I'm in the states, most of the food I eat & prepare is either home-grown or from dumpster-diving (once again nobody is paying anything). The times that money is one step removed is still often in only a secondary way. When I'm hitch-hiking, it's true that the other person pays for their car, and their gas, etc... but they would be spending the exact same amount of money whether I was involved or not.
My focus is not on not using money, it's on only using it when means of direct exchange are not available, instead of making it the go-to solution. A very important thing to me, and one of the key topics Erika & I discussed, is the understanding that quid-pro-quo isn't necessary. All of the energy you give, comes back to you, every time. It doesn't need to come back from the person you gave to, that is an artificial limitation, a form of tunnel vision that causes people to miss opportunities and not see their abundance. I don't need to be paid for cooking for hundreds of people at an event; simply being of service is a gift in and of itself, and all of that energy I have given will come anyway
It appears that we may be running from money but money is neutral. It's a tool. Much like our bodies that allows us access to certain experiences. Not THE way, just a way. Money is not sick. We are sick. So instead of running from money, it seems that if we are going to run from anything, it should be from our own imaginations about who we are. Not money.
Partially, I agree with you, but there are very different things being talked about here. Money is something with inherent value, like a silver/gold coin, a crystal, a bag of cacao, which is used as a medium of exchange. Currency is 'a system of money used in a particular country', in the current world mostly fiat currency, meaning without value, simply a representation. That doesn't necessarily mean that currency is a bad thing, but since all it does is attempt to represent our time & energy in an impersonal way, I find it much more fulfilling to simply exchange that time & energy directly.
Thanks for your feedback, and I'm always happy for new opportunities to discuss these things. I do have to admit I find it can be a bit trying when someone doesn't watch/listen/read a whole piece, and then gives a response which often would have been resolved by finishing the content. This is something I've been guilty of before, and as I work to make sure I don't do it anymore, it is harder and harder to ignore when others do it.
"Lack of money is the root of all evil."
I'm extremely grateful to Kenny, for sharing radical trust. And to Monica, for being engaged enough to respond. Both of you, in unique and powerful ways, make Next Level knowledge more accessible. All further thoughts about this are very welcomed in the comments section below.
I'll confess to not listening to the interview either, but having spent many hours in conversation with Kenny in my living room, my office, and most of all my kitchen, I've learned a lot about his vision. Nevertheless, I had a similar thought to Monica's when I first read Erika's article.
But that thought doesn't just apply to Kenny. It applies to any "gift economy." Even on as grand a scale as Burning Man, it's only possible because so much capital flows in from the outside that this amazing, seemingly money-less event is even remotely possible.
Rainbow Gatherings are not dissimilar. The equipment; the coordination; the supplies -- these are all sourced by money. Even when the food comes from dumpster-diving, it was available to be thrown away because it was originally purchased into inventory, and it's even in the dumpster because the financial calculation of its revenue vs. liability is now in the negative.
The difference isn't whether money is involved. It's whether it's counted. There are no human interactions in the world that aren't made possible through the medium of exchange. My wife can only breast-feed our newborn daughter because she's able to eat enough calories to produce milk from the groceries that I buy. But can you think of a less economically-driven interaction than a mother with her newborn child?
Not counting money is a strategy often executed by the extremely wealthy. The cliched line from the billionaire is "money is no object" or "we spared no expense." When you are pursuing highly materialistic goals (including noble ones like private space flight or creating truly free markets,) these mean you paid the price without counting the cost. But Kenny pursues relationships, experiences, and communities. And in this, he can say like the billionaire "I don't care how much it costs" and find a way to reach his goals with little or no money.
It's the same concept; it just works in reverse.
Sure, I helped finance Kenny's time in Acapulco. I didn't do it because he laid out a fee schedule and a per-diem expense requirement that I found satisfactory. I simply said "I want you here to support my family as we prepare for the conference and our new child and I'll cover your expenses in order to have that." And he said "well, then that will make it possible and I look forward to being there."
We didn't agree on rates or expense limits. I just knew that Kenny would offer whatever I needed and he knew that I would make sure he was comfortable and neither of us ran a spreadsheet for it.
Interestingly enough, we DID run a spreadsheet for part of his stay, and that is the group house he set up to help Anarchapulco attendees be able to afford the conference. I fronted the money for it and he maintained meticulous books to ensure that I received that money back. Thus ensuring that we can do the same thing again next year.
But he didn't give the guests in the house fixed rates. He simply asked them to support the house in what they thought was fair, and they did, even paying out a bit more than what I'd put up allowing Kenny to walk away with some extra money to help him move on to his next goal.
So that's the strategy -- not to eschew money but to avoid counting it and maximizing it and focusing on the numeric outcome rather than the human relationships and experiences that result.
Now... ALL THIS being said, I wouldn't choose the same lifestyle for myself. In my case, it's because I have a family. I choose to count very carefully in order to ensure that my wife and children are comfortable and happy. I count carefully in order to make sure that the Anarchapulco conference can continue to take place year-to-year. I count carefully to make my customers successful in my consulting business and get everyone on my staff paid in order to support their families as well.
That's the path I've chosen, but it demands no diminishing of Kenny's choices. I admire his path and will continue supporting it long into the future.
Some interesting perspectives, for sure...
To me, money is a pretty nifty "temporary store of value" that makes it possible for me to trade the eggs my chickens just laid for someone to fix my plumbing when I actually have a need to get my plumbing fixed. Or whatever. If things like "availability" and "needs" all happened along a nice straight line, I wouldn't need money... but since my plumbing breaking doesn't necessarily happen according to my chickens' egg laying schedule, I will probably continue to use money. Or cowries. Or gold dubloons.
I love the idea of transhumanism, gift economies, anarchism, pure libertarianism and so on... but they tend to be ideologies that are seldom-- if ever-- functionally implementable in the real the world because they assume a level of intelligence, insight and self-awareness very few people have... and even want. At best, they exist as intellectual ideals from which we-- hopefully-- can derive hybrid variations that can actually be applied on broader scales.
Interesting. For me this is a dilemma at times because money is a very good tool to be able to use especially since I love to invest my money. On the other hand I have the least interest in acquiring it just for the sake of acquiring it. Obviously taking care of family is highly important so this is something I balance. I think everyone needs to figure out what fulfills them in life because not everyone's goal is to be super wealthy. Some just want fulfillment whether they are considered broke or wealthy. Good conversation piece.