There is a game I play sometimes. Now and then, I buy a Powerball
Lottery ticket, or somebody gives me one, just for fun. I’ve noticed how
much fun I have spending the 2 million or 10 million or 200 million
dollars, for those few hours before the numbers are drawn. It is so easy
to spend my virtual, imaginary “bottomless” bank account, represented
by a piece of paper with 7 numbers on it.
It’s easy to grasp that slick slip of paper and see the Peace Chamber
completed, with the finest craftsmanship my artisan friends can deliver.
Likewise, my old farmhouse takes a quantum leap back in time - with a
complete restoration - and a quantum leap forward with the installation
of 21st century technology for the greenest mechanical and electrical
systems. It is the posterhouse for rejuvenating Maine’s venerable
housing stock.
Simultaneously, I build my exquisite small Spiral House, with masonry
stove, outdoor shower, heated patio floor, hot tub, sauna, and cherry
cabinets milled from that tree that dropped last year. I acquire the
abutting property and annex it to Hope Peace Ceremonies. The people,
equipment, and sensitive improvements to turn this land into a
permaculture farm side by side with ceremonial spaces are easy to obtain
with a few strokes scribbled in my bottomless checkbook.
Visits to my grandchildren in Idaho are routine, and frequent. I can
even fly first class, and have a place of my own in Idaho to stay
nearby. Lots of friends in the virtual world are flesh and blood friends
now, because I can travel easily when ever and where ever I want to. I
have lots of space and ease for them to stay with me in Maine, too.
It would take all of my fingers and toes, and some of yours, to name the
people, groups, and causes I will joyfully gift with money. Since there
is no way I can imagine spending a quarter of a billion dollars, (not
being the Federal Government), I shall promptly create a foundation to
give the money away. I envision a community building matching grant
program that empowers recipients to create the means to bring peace
through creativity in their own patch of earth.
Which reminds me - Hope Peace Chamber would probably need to apply for
one of those grants, because money doesn’t build a Peace Chamber. Only
people joined together singing can do that.
Yes, I have fun dreaming of how I will indulge myself outrageously, yet
consciously, with my lottery windfall. But what happens to my visions
the morning after I know I don’t have the winning ticket? Do my visions
shrink to the size of my ordinary, and occasionally overdrawn, bank
account? Well, yes, kind of.
Is it a true desire if it is not burning in me no matter what? If it is
dependent for its juice on a pile of cash, real or imagined, is it
really calling me? Why do I need a fantasy of a government sponsored
lottery to fund my desires? What is the point of a bottomless pile of
cash in a national bank somewhere, before I’ll even start letting my
imagination run wild about the good things life brings me, and I bring
to life?
What is it about a huge pile of money, like a powerball jackpot, that
turns it into God?
There is nothing wrong with money. Money is wonderful! It’s just a way
we humans invented to pay things forward, keep the energy moving. Paying
money is the easiest and cheapest way to get stuff. It was invented
cause it is easier to carry than a goat. Now money isn’t even physical,
just packets of electrons, moving around the globe, changing digits in
columns. But we have the idea that with sufficiently large numbers in
those plus columns, we can do, be, or have anything we want. We can
become as gods ourselves.
Crazy. Is it a symptom of a cultural disease that I think I need all
that money to give me the power to do, or create what I want. Is it also
a symptom of a cultural disease that I want all these fancy things,
like technology, and houses, and foundations giving out money? Again,
there is nothing wrong with any of these things, but they are optional. I
don’t need all that to have a beneficial impact on the world. I already
do that, just by being here.
My creativity, purpose, mission, and desires are fully funded. I have an
account with the First Big Bang Bank of the Universe now. It’s a
bottomless bank account available to fund any thing I can imagine. My
relationship with this bank is so intimate and trusting that I don’t
even need a checkbook, I just need a clear thought powered by feeling,
in other words, my heart’s desire, and I can withdraw any amount I need
to fund my next step.
Recently a friend expressed that she was tired of sufficiency, she
wanted more than sufficiency. That got me thinking about what is
sufficient. It is plenty! all I need right when I need it.
What do I need? I need fulfillment of my desires. What are my desires?
They boil down to health, shelter, beauty, love, freedom, and community.
Any specific intentions that support these desires are divinely
inspired, and sufficiently--abundantly--supplied by my account with the First Big Bang
Bank of the Universe. Sufficiency is trusting that I am taken care of.
Sufficiency is enough to share, and it doesn’t have to be millions to
make a difference. Sufficiency is abundance without the headaches!
In his book, No Word for Time, Evan T. Pritchard writes about an
Algonquin view of money:
“Money is like food, something to be spent (or not spent) in a way that
nurtures the spirit and the body. To the traditional Micmac, money is
like fish: you get a little every day and stay happy. You pile it up in a
secret place and something starts to stink. You can’t hoard fish, but
you know where to find it and how to get it when you need to.”
Pritchard continues:
“The modern person spends money for bodily and emotional comfort ...
spends according to how much is in the bank, as opposed to finding what
he or she really wants, and acquiring the means to get it, through
trade, or exchange of money or perhaps, through ritual.
While the modern person worries about the future, the traditional elder
only exists in the now... Some traditional elders don’t have bank
accounts; their money is only in the now, too.”
In a society where there is no word for time, it is easy to let money be
in the now. We modern people have too many words for time: including
words like due date, late charge, mortgage, credit. I learned long ago
that any perceived money problems were simply time problems. We have
structured a culture built around the time/money continuum: money comes
in every two weeks, and money goes out on due dates. We pay for this
time/money continuum with our freedom.
I understand now why I feel so free at the prospect of a huge pile of
cash at my disposal. It flattens out the time barrier, and gives the
appearance of freedom.
Is it possible for this modern person to forget the word for time, to
have money be in the now, to trust the abundance and efficiency of the
First Big Bang Bank of the Universe, and get that I am already making
miracles, right now, just as I am.
