I’m having some interesting thoughts about money I thought I should write down (or type-in, as it were). There seems to be a resistance, among very sweet, noble people, to collecting money from others. This is an interesting phenomenon that I, myself, have also experienced at times. I think, at the heart of it, is a deep knowing that someone could be caused pain in having to give up their money to you, or that someone along the way will have to suffer because you’ve asked for money, whether mentally or materially. And I’m not sure whether or not this is pathological thinking or whether it is really forward-thinking.

Pathologically, you could say that a resistance to getting paid for doing something one loves to do is simply projecting your own fears about money onto other people needlessly. If, in fact, someone gives you their money, they may not think twice about it. It may not bother them or their bank account at all. On the other hand, they could be making silent judgments about your fairness in setting a price, for example, or valuing what you do differently than you do. We don’t like separating ourselves from others. Giving you their money could cause them to not have enough money for other things. These may all be things you needn’t concern yourself with.

However, maybe there is some forward-thinking value in not wanting to have or use money at all. Money might slow us down transactionally. If we all just gave to each other freely of our talents or material goods when needs arose, we could eliminate the exchange of the middle man, trusting that, in time, our needs would be met in the same manner. After all, most of us spent our youths living this way and, as mothers, we spend a lot of time providing “free” services to the world. This comes naturally. But this may be too utopian at this time in history. Perhaps money is needed for the same reason that rules are needed to prevent the time-drain of confusion when anarchy exists. Anarchy can only work in an organism that communicates perfectly and instantaneously across the entire organization. In the same way, money may not be needed in a society in which the members all knew exactly the needs of all the other members and could communicate quickly and meet needs quickly.

Which brings us back to today.

If we have resistance to asking people to pay us for what we do for them, then we should be consistent and try to live rent-free, not pay for food, clothing, etc. I know there are people in the world who have chosen to live this way and it IS possible. However, as long as we choose to live in apartments/houses that demand rent/mortgage, and we are paying for basic survival and beyond, we must ask others to support us so that we can meet our needs. We can not be useful to the world as long as we are worried about how to meet our own needs with our financial situations. We waste creative time worrying about where the next meal will come from when we don’t ask people to pay us enough for what we do. We cannot control their suffering or what they may think of us for asking this of them. We must simply strive to ask what is fair for the service we provide for the world.

It’s an interesting cycle we are in of just circulating money amongst each other so that everyone can just live their lives and do their jobs. When you are employed by someone, you don’t have to think of these things as often (maybe once a year at salary evaluation?), as you do when you strike out on your own and try to put a value on what you do for the world.

Money money money, mo-ney…