Currency of love

ANCIENT PHAESTOS

I feel like a coffee pot with something percolating deep inside. Something important, but very unhatched right now. It has to do with an alternative to money as currency. Ideas, conversations, reading, encounters, etc all keep pointing me in this direction.

The direction of living more harmoniously and with equanimity. When I have felt safe enough to mention this, bartering always surfaces from others. But I imagine something very different, although I can't say what right now. Something that does not reward privilege or favor or rest in the hands of the few and powerful.

A currency available to all that tilts the balance of power and influence to the outcast, downtrodden, uneducated, poor, sick, homeless, those in the middle and even those with wealth. I think of the game Life  – or even Monopoly – I used to play as a kid. Each player began with the same amount of play money. Again, still money, but the field was leveled ... until you landed on go to jail, had to pay a fine or experienced a catastrophe. The rules did NOT encourage help from other players; you were on your own – win or lose.

I read somewhat recently that our financial system, our economy, is based on a centuries-old method developed by kings to finance war. It is a system that promotes and prepares for war. No wonder it seems so very warped to me. The entire premise is power and fighting others into submission.

What if the underlying principles were nurture, creativity and advancing each individual to reach their potential to enhance the society? Sounds like something mothers, women, would do.

A system that rewards and encourages personal development in the context of contributing to the whole and not just oneself or immediate family.

I confess to considering money an evil tool. The way in which it is rewarded is out of whack and steeped in privilege ... to the point that those immersed don't see the privilege and view it as just the way the world works. I am guilty of that thoughtless mindset.

In creating a new system, I don't envision a bland drone-like existence of sameness. I see vitality, creativity, drive, vision. No state or government that dictates. In fact, I believe the impetus will have to emanate outside politics.

A health coop in Ohio runs apart from insurance and the group pays the bills of members as they arise. Simple and virtually unheard of – people taking care of each other.

I am drawn to the little I've read about the goddess-/female-based Minoan culture in Crete. I once walked the corridors of the ancient palace in Phaestos and shivered with deja vu. As if I had been there when women ruled and arts, spirituality and reverence for nature flourished.

And Sophia. What would the feminine wisdom have to say about who wins/owns our culture? What was Mother Teresa's currency? Love, compassion and care.

What if we worshiped gratitude, abundance and sharing instead of envy, scarcity and hoarding?

There are deep ramifications that would entail a complete societal re-haul that many will not embrace. But what can I do? Just me in my little ways to spread the currency of love?


• How does money make me feel?
• What's my life been like when I had less? More?
• How often do I deal in the currency of love?
• What are the rewards for myself? Others?
• What single thing can I do to counter the violence money breeds?


a single
seed
can
be

secretly
planted,
grown
and harvested
so the
planter
gets it all,
breeding
envy
jealousy
hate and
revenge 



or
collectively
tended
and
the
fruits
shared,
cultivating
harmony
quality
and love


which
do I
choose?