Friends,
My thoughts this evening turn to the meaning of scarcity and abundance. What happens when we really do not have enough - or believe it is so? And what to make of an equally powerful question: What does it mean to have too much? Whether we are aware of it or not, we are challenged to somehow hold the uneasy tension between scarcity and abundance in our minds and souls. I think first of the millions across the globe who deal daily with scarcity because they do not have sufficient food to eat, clean water, and basic health care, among other critical deprivations. In contrast, although there are certainly places of dire poverty in the U.S., most of us have the privilege - responsibility? - of asking what is enough as we live amidst so much abundance. And yet we Americans sadly are subjected to an unacknowledged specter of scarcity in our culture that creates a pervasive, subversive cultural anxiety that establishes a base for cultural tension and violence. Consumerism, for example, is based in the concept of scarcity. Consciously, or subconsciously, we wonder if we have enough. Is there not something more we need that we don’t have that would make us more content. Advertising in television, for example, is extensively a pervasive commercial that convinces us we need a "new and better” product to help us be happier, more comfortable, efficient, capable and productive. And to make consumerism more dramatic and persuasive we are told that products are often available for “a limited time only” so we may not get our share. For most of us the interruption of supply lines during Covid was the first time we felt anxious about not having “enough” so we went out and stocked up and hoarded (How could we ever live without toilet paper!?). “Black Friday” accounts of rabid consumer violence as people trampled one another for "one day only" discounted items, of course, represent the worst of this mentality. When we are stressed many us soothe our anxiety by just going shopping. And we seldom seriously ask how well we decide between what we want and what we need? And what is enough, anyway? The mindset of scarcity also pervades much of our cultural orientation as competition. Our capitalist society, whether we agree or not, assumes we will compete over the scarcity of jobs, housing, health care, water, and education, to name a few. Competition to stir initiative and effort, if the opportunities are equal, can be positive, of course. But much of the competition in American life is a hard-wired for us to believe we need to be assertive about being self-sufficient, often at the expense of others, so there is a tendency to always worry whether I have enough. In response to concerns about economic scarcity a widely accepted standard of cultural success is thus measured by a person’s accumulated wealth, and the capitalist economy emphasizes the incentive to accumulate as much personal wealth as possible while ignoring - or resenting as impediments to wealth accumulation - those who need basic economic assistance. A recent report, for example, noted that the top 40% of earners are sitting on more than a trillion dollars in extra saving amassed during the early part of the pandemic while lower income households have been burning through their savings as they deal with higher cost of of rent, food and other essentials. There is an alternative vision to our sense of scarcity, and that is to live with a deep sense of gratitude for what we do have and to share our resources as neighbors. It is not unusual that casual conversations with strangers often include an expression that, in spite of personal challenges, we often end with a statement about how grateful we are in general. I am constantly aware that in our hearts most people regularly at least experience and express deep gratitude and thanksgiving for family, health, or general well-being. Is it possible to nurture a belief in abundance that counters our tendency to experience scarcity? What if we believed that the earth itself provides sufficient sustenance that we would not need to live in the fear and anxiety that we would not have enough? I am reading Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer who devotes a whole chapter about the often cited, widely honored tribal ritual called the “Thanksgiving Address” in which there is a recitation of honoring the interdependence and mutuality of all of creation. Instead of a pledge of allegiance to a flag or a nation, the tribal allegiance pledge is to honor and respect life itself. Living with this honoring and respect provides a confidence that when we live in right relationship with the earth and all the creatures of creation with whom we are able to share its abundance, counters our sense of scarcity and the anxiety that leads to conflict and violence, and we can thus be released from the anxiety of needing to compete for scarce resources. And, yes, the vision of abundance is idealistic, but it truly is a vision we must try to learn to observe and follow if we are to sustain the earth.. Peace, Tom
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