Money is..?
I read somewhere that money is “frozen time.” Interesting idea! It’s a slightly different metaphor than I had run across before.
What it seems to mean is that the “stuff” we buy is free-what we pay for is the people’s time to mine/grow/manufacture/ finance/manage/transport the free stuff to us.
And the paycheck we get is what the boss gives us in exchange for our time.
Hanging on to it?
When thinking of money as frozen time, it does make sense to keep a stock of money (people’s time) on hand to see us through thin times. It’s just like we would have stored our own “time” in the pantry as our preserves, sauces, stewed vegetables, all prepared by us to be ready for the winter, just as we put the apples and potatoes into our proverbial root cellar.
Continuing with the metaphor, of course we can see that jamming our cellar full of produce that is too much to eat and would rot is just about as useful as being a miser and finding our money “rotted” by inflation or depreciation.
What does money do for us?
It seems as if, of all the things we might think it can do for us, it does one thing for sure. It gives us freedom.
For instance, if you are a nincompoop, money gives you the freedom to become a bigger nincompoop. If you are a nice person, money gives you the freedom to exercise that which you really are and you become a nicer person. If you are a tightwad, it gives you the freedom to become a bigger tightwad. By the same token, if you are a generous person, money gives you the freedom to be a more generous person.
The following statement from Rev. Dr. Harry Emerson Fosdick back in 1939 seems to sum up the “value” of money, even if in archaic-seeming terms:
“A dollar is a miraculous thing. It is a man’s personal energy reduced to portable form and endowed with powers the man himself does not possess. It can go where he cannot go; speak languages he cannot speak; lift burdens he cannot touch with his fingers; save lives with which he cannot directly deal, so that a man busy all day downtown can at the same time be working in boys’ clubs, hospitals, settlements, childcare centers, all over the city.”
Money doesn’t change our character. 
Money just gives us the freedom to show our character and possibly our beliefs and fears.
Who hasn’t heard of lottery winners who didn’t know how to manage money and who became broke and in debt within a couple of years?
It’s been said that we can tell more about a person by their checkbook or credit card statements than we can by their diary entries. Folks can kid themselves in their diaries, but the checkbook tells it all!
So money does not need to change our character or our awareness. It just enhances it. It simply gives us the freedom to be more of what we already were and, possibly, to become even more than that.
If what we think, say, and do about money defines us in some ways,
then what do you think about what it says about you?
Have you grown since your earlier beliefs and actions with money? Are you moving to greater awareness and understanding about the role of money in your life?
For me, I’m grateful to see it as a symbol in my life of the energy and abundance of the universe that flows to and through me continually.
I’d love to hear your thoughts on this always fascinating subject!
7 Comments
I appreciate your generous nature. You have been a life saver for me at many times. I know you worried if you were giving me permission to misuse my money because you kept rescuing me. I didn’t see it that way. I saw it as you giving me permission to try new things without feeling I would be destroyed if it didn’t work out. I am learning better money management by your example. I still remember the times in Freshwater with the crazy money management and how you handled it skillfully and with thankfulness. I love you and think you are one of the greatest women in the world and I would feel that way even if you weren’t my mother!
Hear! Hear! Well said, Laure.
Laurie, Thank you for your comments! I know that you have been learning many new skills in decision making and handling money. Keep up that process.
Money is definitely a tool for freedom. Freedom to change all sorts of things in one’s life and to make a difference in the lives of people and animals around us. And I am so grateful that it doesn’t ‘define’ me at all but rather ‘allows’ me to make different choices.
I, too may grateful for your example, Pat. And that maybe finally I’ve actually learned something from all your patient lessons!
Fay, We are all still learning and as the situations change, the learning changes too! And I believe it really does come down to the choices we make, hopefully consciously!
Our pastor Sandy Smith, frequently speaks of the idea of paying bills as our own personal ‘stimulus plan’. We send our money to organizations that have provided something of value to us and in return, we help people keep jobs and employment and be productive. I like that. I like to think that the money I pay to bills every month is helping employ people so they can do meaningful things.
Dave, I like what you shared about paying bills. I also remember the idea that having bills means we were trusted by the provider to pay for the services rendered. And that trust is a great gift from them!