I remember going to the grocery store as a child and watching my mother fill two grocery carts with food. She worked as a bookkeeper in a factory and raised seven children without a husband, alimony or child support. After paying for the groceries we walked home. We didn’t have a car.
The store delivered the groceries, which usually arrived before we got there. They’d be sitting on the kitchen table when we arrived. The house was never locked. The things that needed to be refrigerated would be in the fridge and the frozen goods would be in the freezer. These were simple times and people took care of each other.
Each one of us liked a different cereal so she had to purchase seven boxes of cereal each week. Snacks, cookies, and candy were not in the cart. We never had steak. Hamburger was a delicacy to be enjoyed at family get-togethers and special occassions. Chicken and tunafish were affordable and fresh fruits and vegetables were always available. It seems that eating healthy was the economical choice.
I can’t imagine what those groceries would cost today. I’m relatively sure a bookkeeper’s salary would not afford them, especially when the cost of maintaining a five bedroom home is added into the mix. As the necessities of living become more expensive our ideas about money change. Today, money matters much more than when I was a child.
The things a society values tend to receive more attention. That which receives more attention tends to become more highly regarded. Does cost have any real relation to value or worth these days? Are designer goods really that much better than the other brands? Last years styles can be found in the outlets. Why? Their value has diminished in the eyes of the market. And what is this market but an idea in mind!
Growing up, we received new clothes and shoes in September when school began, all purchased from the Montgomery Ward catalog. They were worn for an entire year, regardless of whether they still fit or how tattered they became. We weren’t exceptional in this regard. This was the norm for most of our classmates. We were better off than some who had to wear their older siblings hand-me-downs until they literally disintegrated.
The other day at the mall, while waiting outside a store for my wife, a group of five young girls, about ten years in age, walked by engaged in animated conversation. They were dressed like fashion models with all the trimmings. Each one carried a designer purse along with a number of shopping bags from various name-brand stores. A cell phone peaked out of each girls back pocket.
When everything has a price and that price is a known quantity to all but the most ignorant and indolent, then where will value be recognized? It will be noted in the material effects, and it will be disregarded in any individual person who does not display adequate valuation. When money matters more, or most, then people will matter less, if at all.
Do you know your credit score? What is this but a means to assign a value to a person? This score describes your value in the market, the money market. It doesn’t say anything about how kind you are, how generous, or honest and trustworthy. If you lose your income and fall down you will be penalized in the market.
Apply for a job, your credit is checked. Let your credit score fall too low and you won’t even qualify for a job at your local fast-food restaurant. Money and its relevant measurements now matter more than pretty much anything else you can say or do. Where does that leave us? You don’t have to look very far to find an answer. That’s why the world’s economies are failing. They are failing humanity and serving money.
As you go through your day pay attention to what you pay attention to. You may find that you’ve been conditioned to focus predominantly on the material aspects of what you see. But there is a much more interesting and beautiful world just beyond those effects. It’s a place where the human heart reigns. It too often goes unnoticed and unrewarded in the real world, but it’s there all the same.
The world that money made is cold, cruel, and heartless. It is only when we remember it’s also a world of people that warmth and compassion may enter therein. Don’t allow the coldness out there overwhelm the warmth of a gentle, forgiving heart.