Resolsution 2: Give More Pt 1

Man it feels good to have that first post done. It's been sitting as a draft for close to a year. It was like a treadmill that you bought in attempt to get in shape, but now is a really expensive place to hang clothes. It's done though. I feel good about it. I like the idea of minimalism, and it's something I might write about more in the future. 

On to Resolution 2: Give more Pt 1

I'll be honest. This one I haven't been good at. Over the past year I think it's safe to say I've given maybe total of a handful of change away. I mean I've donated a bunch of stuff to Goodwill after I've moved, but I don't think that counts. It's not like I was giving to a family who desperately needed a floral print couch with Dorito crumbs under the cushions. Goodwill just happened to be a lot closer than the dump.

It’s really easy for me to beat myself up for this. I can wallow in guilt and all that, but that’s just not helpful. Sure I can guilt myself into being generous for a while, but that never lasts and I go back to not being generous and then I feel like garbage about it and the whole cycle starts again. Instead of beating myself up I want to tell two stories. I believe that there are two primary ways of viewing ourselves, our resources, and our relationships with those resources that might give some insight into this idea of generosity.

In case you guys haven’t noticed it’s Christmas season out there. You can’t go anywhere without being run over by advertisements counting down the number of days left or telling you that you need to hurry because these supplies and prices won’t last. There are lists online of the hottest gifts of 2015 and you need to get them for your loved ones before they run out. Otherwise their holiday will be ruined! You don’t want that do you? And this all leads the frantic pace and constant stress and anxiety that leave so many of us just beat and secretly wishing that the holidays would just get over with already.

In marketing they call this the Scarcity Principle. It’s where the advertiser tries to convince us that supplies are running out or that we need to act now to lock in that low low price. It appeals to our caveman brain that still believes that we’re living in a cave and that if we don’t stockpile while we have the chance we’ll starve to death and become some saber tooth tiger’s next meal.

The thing is though, when you start to peel back the layers, all the marketing, the advertising, it’s all based on a particular way of viewing the world and it’s resources. Underneath it all is the belief that there is simply not enough. That there’s not enough money.  That there’s not enough time. That there’s not enough resources, and we run the risk of running out. So we need to accumulate all we can or else. This particular view of the world and it’s resources is built one built on scarcity.

This view has some pretty serious implications. There are around 7 billion people on this planet all with needs and wants of their own. But if there’s not enough resources for me, then there’s certainly not enough for them, right? I mean I have to take care of myself, my family, and my tribe first? We all need to get all we can, even if that means that some people are left without. They, of course, will attempt to do the same thing.  Can you blame them? Inherently this view places us in a state of competition, tension and violence with the world around us, with our neighbors, with the environment, with everything.

Is this really the way it is? Is there really not enough for everyone? Is it the case that human relationships are inherently based on competition, tension, and violence? Is the cold hard truth at the center of it all the fact that there’s not enough to go around and some people are just going to have to go without? 

Is scarcity really at the heart of it all?

Or is there something else?

That’ll be part two.
Peace