by Kate
Sometimes I get a little down thinking about money. There's so much greed in the world, both on a personal and systemic level. It's so easy to become disillusioned and disheartened by news stories of ponzi schemes, amoral CEOs, governments that refuse to make needed changes because of corporate lobbies, and the strange, confusing existence of the world's billionaires. Every day, people's lives are crushed because of the greed of others, and as an individual I feel helpless in the face of it.
Then I ran across the following passage in social commentator Rebecca Solnit's book Hope in the Dark. Solnit is looking for "the grounds for hope" in a seemingly mad world and one place she found it was the "altruistic, idealistic forces already at work in the world." She writes:
"Most of us would say, if asked, that we live in a capitalist society, but vast amounts of how we live our everyday lives - our interactions with and commitments to family lives, friendships, avocations, membership in social, spiritual, and political organizations - are in essence noncapitalist, full of things we do for free, out of love, and on principle."
The world may be full of greed and we may recognize this characteristic in our own hearts - but every single day all of us love our families and friends for no reason other than because we love them. We participate in non-transactional relationships all the time (with no thought that we'll get anything in return) and every time we do it cancels out the greed little by little. This is an idea I hold on to with all my heart.
As Christians, our love and hope has a deeper edge to it - we also love because it's who we are called to be and because God first loved us and our job is to reflect that love to the world. Solnit and her book are not coming from a Christian perspective, but we know that the "altruistic, idealistic forces already at work in the world" include God's love and God's own economy of mercy and justice - things that offer hope beyond our world.
I've never thought of my relationships and my calling to loving kindness as an antidote to the greed disease. I've never put these two ideas side by side until I read Solnit's words. A moment of kindness or love, an action of consideration or thoughtfulness - that's what we can do as individuals to stand against the forces of greed. Any time that I choose not to care about what I will receive in return (a non-transactional action) I am doing my part to reject a culture of greed. My own life and relationships seem laughably small in the grand scheme of things- but God's grace can magnify even our tiniest actions.
So when you feel overcome by disgust or disappointment at the greed in the news - find someone in your house, in your workplace, or on your street and do something "just because." Bring in your neighbor's trash cans from the street, organize your spouse's sock drawer, share your cupcakes with your cubicle neighbor, or listen to your kid/sibling/neighbor/friend talk about their favorite hobby that you don't care about. Choose to spend a moment outside the system of give and take - and restore your faith in a world without greed.
