How grateful I am to the Occupy movement for demanding that all of us look at and discuss money: “Wall Street,” that all-purpose phrase incorporating a host of ills, bank bailouts, how politicians are bought and sold, the student loan crisis; how grateful I am that, thanks to those courageous souls of Zuccotti Park et al, these conversations form the fabric of public conversation.
And how grateful I am to the Transition movement for teaching me to look at the world around me systemically (I still have much to learn!)
Thinking more deeply and more interconnectedly about money has had one immediate effect, I’m noticing: My reaction to Christmas, a holiday I usually LOVE, is pretty muted this year. In fact, verging on “Bah, humbug.” I see Christmas lights, for example, and think, “What a waste of money and energy!”
I have faith that the essential Christmas Spirit will prevail—maybe, as it often does for my husband, in January, February! Meanwhile, I’ll try to take comfort from these words from Faith and Practice of New England Yearly Meeting of Friends‘s twelfth query: “. . . When discouraged, do you remember that Jesus said, ‘Peace is my parting gift to you, my own peace, such the world cannot give. Set your troubled hearts at rest, and banish your fears.”?