Wealth and Power

Soul Rich

“Human greatness does not lie in wealth or power, but in character and goodness. People are just people, and all people have faults and shortcomings, but all of us are born with a basic goodness.”

Anne Frank

I read an article on-line yesterday written by Johan Rockstrom of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Stockholm, Sweden. He has called upon the wealthiest people in the world to fund steps toward reducing greenhouse gases before it's too late. He's called upon them because our governments will not be able to do it fast enough. In the article, which I believe was originally a TED talk, he cites some statistics that are quite impactful—the wealthiest 1% of people in the world own nearly half of the world's household wealth—47%. And, the richest 10%, own 85% of the global wealth. Let that sink in. The rest of us, the 90%, own only 15% of earth's wealth. And, that gap is widening.

Given the fact that money is only valuable because we deem it so, even gold is only valuable because we have decided that it is, this whole concept of power being equated with wealth is strange to me. So, what made people like Jesus, Gandhi, Muhammad, and Martin Luther King, Jr. have such an impact on humanity? They were not rich men. Not in the world's terms, anyway. What about the young girl, Anne Frank, in Nazi Germany? She was hiding for her life, yet writing down her thoughts about the basic goodness of people in a lone diary that is still read all over the world? What about so many others too numerous to mention, who have reached out and touched us so deeply that they changed the character of the culture, and moved us in the direction of morality and human decency? Mother Teresa, Maya Angelou, Viktor Frankl, Ram Dass, Eckhart Tolle, Alice Walker, Barbara Brown Taylor, even folks like John Stewart and Trevor Noah, who comically demonstrate for us the truth and irony of our crazy world. How many of us have had that one great teacher who changed us for the better simply by opening our minds to what is possible? Tell me, who actually wields power in this world?

We are a weird species to decide that money is the determinate of power. As Anne Frank so poignantly wrote, “all people have faults and shortcomings,” but we are also born with innate goodness that is the true power on this earth. In the frenzy of billion dollar jackpots, we must not lose sight of the fact that our power does not lie in the size of our bank account, but in the depth of our consciousness—in our basic compassion and goodness. How is your soul today? Is it rich?

                                                              In the Spirit,

                                                                  Jane