The Fool & His Money Are Soon Parted! Part 1.
The Fool invites us to over turn and suspend the normal rules of reality. One of area of my life where I am experimenting with stepping out and beyond my known and familiar world is in the realm of money. I was keen to discover what lay beyond beyond my judgements and attitudes towards money. I was recently challenged to give away a sum of money as part of a personal growth exercise to explore my personal beliefs, attitudes and feelings around money. My initial thought was to give money to someone who was disadvantaged or fiscally challenged. Giving away money to someone who is in need was no challenge. I thought to myself: what would it be like to give away money to someone who is materially and financially better off than me?
The philosopher, Alain De Botton, coined the term Status Anxiety to describe the unpleasant experience when human beings feel that someone else has a higher level of status. There is a level of satisfaction or enjoyment gained from helping people who are lower status. However, top help someone who may in fact be higher or even a potential rival is another matter. I decided on a bigger challenge. I would give some money to someone who had more money than me. In my imagination, I wanted to give $5 to a guy dressed in a dark business suit as he was getting out of his BWM. Anyway, my imaginary opportunity did not present itself. Is there a person or group that has more money than me and that I dislike intensely? Immediately, I had some inspiration. I’ll walk into the next bank and give the teller $ 5.
I went inside the bank and approached the teller. She smiled at me and said: Hello, can I help you? I explained to the teller that I wanted to make a transaction. However, I did not have an account with this bank. I said to her: I would like to give you $ 5. She looked at me with an expression of surprise. No really I said. I smiled and said: Have a great day as walked out the door. This was an exhilarating experience. The words of Jesus Christ began to make more sense when he said: love your enemies… In one act of generosity, I experienced a real sense of freedom and life. There is freedom, pleasure and joy beyond the narrow realm of judgementalism. Next time, do something generous towards someone you dislike, despise, look down upon or hate. It’s a great way to learn more about yourself.
July 12, 2007 at 12:03 pm
You really are a fool. I suppose this has some parallels with the phenomenon of retail therapy where one rebels against the rational forces that tell us to hoard and invest our money by reckless showing contempt for money, spending it on useless momentary gratifications. The feeling of being free with money is liberating and empowering but there is a looming repressed knowledge repercussions at the back of the therapeutic shoppers mind.
Your experiment also highlights the dis-empowerment that occurs in welfare provision. By giving money to another, you put yourself above them - especially if you refuse to form a mutual relationship with that person or persons.
I’m disappointed that you didn’t empty your entire account onto the counter at the bank but I guess there are limitations to this foolish experimentation. I’m reminded of a the greatest fool of all time who I think you mentioned previously: St Francis. As the story goes, on not being able to obtain support from his father for his mission to the poor, he stripped himself of all his clothes and gave everything he owned to his father as a way of publicly shaming him.
July 25, 2007 at 7:45 am
thanks for your response. Your comment about emptying `my entire account’ is not far from the truth. I once gave away all my savings to a charity during a time when I was on a very low, fixed income. Later on, I realised that my motives were extremely tainted. I was trying to be `spiritual’. I gave out of my a motive of wanting to acquire spiritual maturity rather than from a place of freedom. I now believe that real spiritual maturity arises from a context of freedom. I have since learnt that challenging old ingrained patterns sometimes means doing unusual things as giving away money to people who are better off. I think for some people, like Francis of Assisi, giving away all there possessions and social position maybe necessary to make a radical break with their past. In my present phase, making a radical break with the past means being generous to people who are better off and generous towards myself.