Western civilization has lost much of its civility as the urgent fever to acquire and accumulate great wealth and fortunes has become the single most sought after theme in daily life. The news, the helpful advisers with their TV and radio shows...and now Internet shows, the educational and professional opportunities all seek to help us build our own reckless fortunes.
Why even the churches have made it clear that nothing is so important as raising money and the more the merrier. Sadly this is not sustainable behaviour and it will destroy our resources for living and life. If this ceaseless and senseless drive to accumulate great fortunes that nobody spends and nobody uses were about food we would arrive at a very different conclusion about this behaviour - waste and pointless greed.
This type and level of consumption and eating is now identified as a health disorder...a mental/emotional health disorder. And it has deep and lasting impact upon the physical health and the general well-being of the afflicted one. I see those great fortunes as HUGE bodies that those who possess them must cart around and you can't get far with that bulk - the so-called "luggage of life".
But morbidly obese people cannot do this alone for they cannot move nor go out nor care for themselves and their huge physical bulk. Obesity can also bring shame and regret. The obese need helpers and family members who facilitate their self-destructive behaviour and urge it on with cupcakes and whole chickens and endless piles of unneeded nourishment that the body will never and can never process in a healthy and useful manner.
I think that it is in large part because my family has had wealth that it is not such a big factor in my life. I can live and have lived without it. The fact is that through the course of my lengthening lifetime I have heard the stories of how great fortunes destroyed my ancestors in some cases and other families and persons.
The man who raised my Dad [step-grandfather by proxy] was murdered and robbed of almost a billion dollars as he slipped into the eternal sleep...killed in his own bed. A great life cut short for greed. And that was back when a billion dollars meant something and there were few who had this much cash to use for pocket change that could be stolen in a New York moment in beautiful Nassau.
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This great rush to own everything is destroying the Earth and the life sustaining environment that we hope will provide for our children, grandchildren and so forth ad infinitum. Humanity needs to take a long deep breath and rethink how we earn our livings and how we plan for the endless and enduring future.
Many simply dismiss the idea that there can be a future. But I know humanity can adapt and adjust just as we have done before. We must evolve. Science, history, math, religion and philosophies of all kinds claim we can do it. Time says we must do it together and quickly.
My own great-grandfather was the driver in one of those worldwide business and economic transformations of an earlier age – the industrial modernization of Canada and subsequently the world. Few realize that much of the global culture that drives markets, industry, communication and transportation has its origins in Canada and nowhere else.
This gentleman, a carriage maker by trade introduced kerosene to the world market as an alternative to whale oil for lighting, and processed crude oil to produce products for lubrication and heating/energy production – thereby rescuing large mammalian marine life from extinction – i.e. - whales. He also invented the asphalt industry with application in roads, roofs and marine vehicles.
Then he discovered oil and invented the petroleum industry and the integrated petroleum company, built the first oil refinery in the world [in Hamilton Harbour], created the petrochemicals industry, ran the first natural gas pipeline, and paved the first highway in the world between Hamilton and Toronto.
When James Miller Williams arrived in Canada from New Jersey about 1841 there was no infrastructure: there were no roads here, no railroads, no banks and insurance companies, no steel industry, no rail-car industry, no metal stoves for the kitchens of the nation and other practical household goods. This man had a strong hand in building and sharing all of these component parts of our modern society and culture which we take for granted.
He then helped to build modern Canada by first serving as an Alderman in Hamilton and then serving that city in the Ontario Legislature as a “Father of Confederation” from 1867-79. This one man gave us all of this and more, enabling fortunes and livings to be made by countless millions of people in his time.
And even today his legacy continues to feed and provide for the global village. Oil remains king and highways are everywhere now while natural gas is widely used. Without refined gasoline there could be no internal combustion engines, no cars, buses, trains, airplanes – no development and no modern world. His gifts to us keep giving to the international community but it started in Canada and few know that.
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Great fortunes are not always what they're cracked up to be. They can bring sorrow, suffering, regret, self and soul destroying lifestyles, and alienation from the main body of humanity – our brothers and sisters in all places.
I participated in a seminar at Princeton University once about the challenges faced by and the care needed by extremely wealthy people. I still recall a moving story about a child growing up within a high and secure wrought iron fenced estate – a little prisoner looking out at other children playing while she could have no friends nor freedoms.
I was taught by my father that Liberty is the single most valuable asset any person can have and that we should cherish and guard it above and beyond all other treasures – even life itself if it comes down to that. “Give me Liberty or give me death!” as one democratic voice declared. In fact it delivers other treasures to us in the exercise of our Liberty.
Ironically I now find that I can and do achieve more with virtually no money than many do who possess millions of dollars and fleets of expensive vehicles. I call this Success with Less and I'm convinced that we all need to learn how to have happiness and security without destroying the Earth and our own families who will follow after us.
I see that “wealth” as bulk weight that prevents people from being quick and nimble which are qualities needed in the Information Age. As Bill Gates so succinctly put it - “Business @ the Speed of Thought”. Any slower technology or method cannot compete in this world whether on personal, family, community, national or global scales. Slim, slender, economical in a Zen simplicity kind of way, and mobile should be the human ideal of personal and financial health and economics for this century. Our children and all people are @ risk and we can still alter the outcomes so we should - with diligence and determination.
We need better stewardship of the gifts we have inherited for a while - water, earth, air, forests, animal life and all things. We need "Sustainability in all things". I can provide practical leadership in this important challenge we face as we try to save our faltering world and reduce the stress and strain upon the planet through environmental healing and protection practices. This is all easy and inexpensive.
In some cases there is no outlay of money required. It only requires vision and will – so look and see the impossible Crisis that is looming then start working on solutions in your own part of life. We can plant great forests to capture the carbon that heats our global systems and we can quickly clean up ALL of our fresh water resources at little cost and perhaps even great profit.
We can also begin to clean up the oceans by designing new fleets of sea vessels that will harvest the fortunes of plastic that circulate there constantly waiting to be turned back into oil and wealth by our business people and sea captains. This will in turn take pressure off of the extraction processes and soften the harm to our planetary home. Fortunes and livings are waiting to be made in this new world of environmentalist opportunity.
We can do more with less if we rethink our methods and we will ALL be wealthier beyond our wildest dreams – with new industries that provide new kinds of rewards and 21st Century fortunes consisting of healthy environmental practices, scaled back earnings and investment payouts. This will significantly lessen usury in the financial institutions and bullying of citizens by governments and their representatives.
Perhaps it all comes down to what Carlos Santana the great guitarist said, “You ARE your intentions!”
Peace Pays!
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