Some thoughts on money and frugality
Economics comes from the Greek word meaning ‘household.’ We have to come to the realization that frugality and plain living originates in the home, and should focus on the well being of the family, and raising our children as well as influencing other members of extended families and households to practice positive ways of obtaining and saving money.
For the most part, we have not yet accepted the fact that the United States is interwoven with the whole world. To concentrate on protecting one’s own house or apartment is like thinking that we are the super power and all knowing, We need to create transactions of goodwill and good faith in order to promote a more meaningful economic structure where the importance of human need and responsible stewardship of our earth is the goal.
When you are honest in your transactions, whether you’re bartering, trading, or exchanging your services for goods, show signs of appreciation and goodwill and you’ll find, more connections than ever before will come your way.
We are lots if times driven by greed, and that is why, I believe our nation justifies wars based on economic interests and for some reason feel overthrowing governments is acceptable due to similar reasons.
We are all interconnected from home to our government and we should know that both should accomplish money and business ventures with the notion that the bottom line is the reciprocal satisfaction. Simple and plain frugal living creates a planet where starvation can easily be eliminated and everyone can have needs met and peace shall rein among all nations.
The economic decisions you make in your own home can so change our world simply by becoming more self-sufficient and dramatically reducing your consumption of unnecessary items.
Money has unfortunately become a great God. It’s interesting how money just can’t stay where it belongs. It should be a means of supporting life to meet our needs and has taken over the meaning of real security such as self-sufficiency, family and friends. Although money can affect our freedoms and give us power or even happiness, it should only be the catalyst to a better life and should never signify happiness and well being itself.
By giving money great importance, you easily remove the important meaning in your life where money is merely one way of reaching certain goals rather than holding money as the great deity in your life.
I can’t understand why there is still growing anxiety regarding scarcity in this nation. This anxiety about scarcity affects our lives at both a psychological and sociological level. We listen to what others tell us we should strive for in order to obtain abundance of material goods that somehow leads us to great happiness.
Simplicity can take you down the road to freedom and true happiness; affecting your immediate surroundings and extending to the world itself by not taking more than you need. which in turn assures others less fortunate the ability to obtain their needs as well.
By realizing the abundance of what we already have and putting it to good use, generosity is born and with it can only arise true freedom and unconditional love and acceptance of the world around us.
When John D. Rockefeller was once interviewed on the subject of wealth and how much more did he think he needed to attain true happiness and satisfaction, he replied he needed just a little bit more. That just goes to show you the affects of counting on money for true happiness rather than opt for simplicity and frugality in order to attain real freedom and never feeling you need more. Let your needs and wants be leveled and you’ll never feel as though you need more and more.
Thoughts on simplicity and stewardship:
To live a frugal and simple life automatically involves stewardship. Simplicity involves what we own and how much we choose to own and be responsible to take care of.
Stewardship is the use we make of what we already have that has not been attained through our own doing.
Simplicity dictates we should not live beyond our needs and learn to truly realize the differences between our needs and wants, thereby, never having more than what we really need.
Stewardship, on the other hand, somehow teaches us to take care of what we already have or were given through good fortune.
This all comes down, in my opinion, to deciding what we should and should not keep. Items which tend to weigh us down, get rid of; these are items that do not allow us to move forward thereby not permitting us to take total control and care of what is really important.
We need to realize that having great amounts of money should only lead us in the ways of doing good with that money and not glorify yourself because you feel the attainment of such great wealth was somehow a gift to you for having been so good.
Money earned through dishonesty or even wars can’t possibly be distributed for the common good and needs of man. It carries within it the seeds of it’s own destruction. The more we have the more we feel we need and therefore sharing simply does not enter one’s mind.
BY THE CURIOUS ARITHMETIC OF LOVE,
THE MORE WE SHARE, THE MORE WE POSSESS;
THE MORE WE WILLINGLY GIVE,
THE MORE WE MULTIPLY.
By: Lowell Wright
Later,g