A Time-Warner Business TV ad, parroting western efficiency experts tells us, “Time is money.”   Do you know what the Buddhists in the East say? They say, “Time is life!” Now that’s food for thought -- and a topic for a column.
 
Does anyone really doubt that the Buddhists are correct and the capitalists, wrong? Have we in this country devalued life itself in favor of our now fading stock portfolios and bank balances? Ultimately, what do we want to do with the days, weeks, and years that life gives us? Do we wish to spend them making and worrying about money?  Sadly, some live just that way.
 
Money, of course, is only a means to an end.  Francis Bacon said, "Money is like muck, not good except it be spread."  I don’t know if comparing money to manure is the best analogy, but you get the point.  We need it to nourish living things. It’s to be spread, not stashed away. It’s to be used – to remodel the family kitchen, to send the kids to college, to give to the local soup kitchen. Money can do much good, but it can also sour our souls. The French proverb had it right, “Money is a good servant but a bad master.” Or as Billy Graham told us, "There is nothing wrong with men possessing riches but the wrong comes when the riches possess men" or women.
 
Unfortunately, money often possesses us.  It’s the way some keep score. It’s the scale on which we weigh ourselves and our neighbors - an inaccurate yardstick, of course, but a common one. Subconsciously, many judge their worth by the value of their home, by the model of their cars, or the brand name on their jeans.  God help them.
 
To paraphrase Martin Luther King, I dream of a world that will judge my grandchildren not by the worth of their possessions but by the content of their character, by the quality of their lives not the value of their belongings. Those possessions and trinkets will have little to do with their happiness.  Henry David Thoreau told us long ago, "Money is not required to buy one necessity of the soul."
 
This holiday season, however, Americans will be buying many non-necessities for the body.  For retailers this is the most profitable season of the year.  The Nielsen Holiday Forecast estimates that Americans will, despite the financial crisis, spend ninety-eight billion dollars during the holidays. That’s billion with a “B”! Other analysts, however, are fearful that this year we will not be shopping till we drop.  The big box retailers and many economists do not approve, but personally we’d be prudent to hide the credit cards in our sock drawer and put more money into our savings account.
                      
What, however, do these diametrically opposed world-views from the East and West teach us in this financial crisis? That crisis has already and will continue to have a serious impact on many lives and families.  Tragically, some have lost homes, retirement savings or jobs, but they still have their lives. Their money is not their life.
 
But not only eastern religions have wisdom to impart about life and money; Jesus did too. Here he’s speaking to us who naively trusted the financial system.  “Do not lay up treasure for yourselves on earth, where there is moth and rust to consume it, where there are thieves to break in and steal it.…” (Mt. 6: 19-20) That’s what has happened. Our investments for retirement and our children’s education were nibbled away by greed, consumed by mismanagement, and rusted away by lack of regulation.
 
But what about those thieves of which Jesus also spoke?  Did they too sneak in and steal?  Did they cook the books to misrepresent stock values in order to give themselves inflated bonuses? Some think so. The Bible tells us, “The love of money is a root of all kinds of evil” (1 Tim 6-9). Henry Fielding, author of the Tom Jones novel expanded on that scripture, "Money is the fruit of evil, as often as the root of it.” Would Fielding have had some Wall Street types in mind?
 
Although some bankers and fund managers might have done nothing illegal, they often cooperated in a system that was immoral and unethical. To a large degree lobbyists for the financial markets shaped the legislation that ultimately enabled this crisis.  What this says about our Congress and President is another depressing story.
 
But back to Jesus.  He tells us in the continuation of Mathew 6, “To lay up treasures for yourselves in heaven where there is no moth or rust to consume it, no thieves to break in and steal it.”  That heaven is also realized here on earth by contributing money to feed the hungry, cloth the naked, and shelter the vulnerable whom this crisis has hurt most deeply.
 
The private sector will be forced to do much more to help not only the traditional poor but also the newly impoverished middle class. The government can’t afford it.  The next administration will be burdened with trillions of dollars of debt.  The basic needs of an increasing number of our citizens, however, must be met.  They will not go away.  As Jesus told us, “The poor you will always have with you” (Mathew 26:11), and they provide us who have some resources with opportunities. The humorist Al Batt quips, “Money changes people just as often as it changes hands.”  If we are compassionate to those in need, it can change us too -- for the better.
 
Retired from the administration at SUNY Fredonia, Daniel O’Rourke lives in Cassadaga, NY.  His column appears in the Observer, Dunkirk, NY on the second and fourth Thursday each month. A grandfather, Dan is a married Catholic priest. He has published "The Spirit at Your Back," a book of his previous columns. To read about the book or send comments on this column visit his website: danielcorourke.com.

Daniel O'Rourke
orourke@netsync.net
8002 Frisbee Road
Cassadaga, NY 14718
http://www.danielcorourke.com