Currency

I once met a dying actor. He enjoyed a "hey, it's THAT guy" sort a fame. Had a few guest roles in a few tv shows in the 80's. Was in a few B movies. Had a supporting role in one big movie. He had cancer.

"There is one thing I have learned," he said in a soft voice. "It's that money can give us a false sense of security." I was a CPE resident at the time, making half of what I make now as a professional staff chaplain, and what I make now makes me the poorest person you know with a Masters degree from Wake Forest University. So I was curious about this man's comment.

I had learned that a LACK of money gives me a very real sense of insecurity. Of course, I knew that money wasn't the panacea that our culture makes it out to be. If I had made money my goal, I'd have chosen a profession that commands a lot of bank. It's not that hard. Or it's no harder than what I do now. In any case, I feel fortunate. I have meaningful work, and I make enough. But when I was a resident, I did not make enough. Still, I listened to the patient.

"Take this cancer for instance," he said. "No matter how much money I throw at this, I'm going to die."

All of a sudden my mind is filled with literary and film references. Remember in the Jodie Foster movie Contact? She has a benefactor. A strange, some would say deranged, billionaire. He is riddled with cancer and as a last resort has paid for transport up to the Russian space station Mir. Apparently the zero G environment slows the progress of cancer. That's probably not factual (I mean, have studies been done on this? If I were an oncologist I would absolutely want to look into this, but only if it meant a trip into space). In any case, Mr. Twisted Benefactor of Jodie Foster ended up dying.

In the Michael Crichton novel, Next, there is, yet again, another billionare who runs into deadly health issues. He too, attempts to throw money at the problem. He owns a biotech company that does research on the cutting edge of gene therapy. At the end of the book, despite his mindblowingly vast resources, this man dies on the operating table.

Of course, this is fiction. It is also true. The movie star did eventually die, and his words have remained with me.

It strikes me that the acquistition of wealth is yet another attempt to control reality. To a limited extent, the wealthy DO have a lot of control. Certainly corporations "too big to fail," or those with money to invest in controlling our political leaders, have some degree of power.

But they still don't have the capital that really matters. They have a limping currency that only goes so far. Despite the "lording over" quality that many executives exhibit in their lives--just look at Donald Trump and his ability to make pronouncements for the world to hear, despite his lack of anything substantial to say--each of them will die. But even in the middle class, we live in the vale of illusion. Our climate controlled homes buffer us from the elements, our cars allow us a quality of convenience unheard of in the vast span of human history, our Medicine can temporarily pull us from the jaws of death... a person "dies" on the table, but medications and electricity can revive them. But what is any of this worth if no one considers the essential things?

The only currency worth a damn is love.

People living in abject poverty understand this. It is tempting for us living with air conditioning to sentimentalize "the poor" as merely salt of the earth folk. The truth is, they can be just as wretched as the rest of us, though their lives are shorter and more brutish than ours. I'm not going to go into Somalia expecting to find entire populations of centered, wise, contented people. However, there are people living in these hells-on-earth capable of experiencing and enjoying love. They have fewer distractions from mortality than we do, but some people have discovered that which makes life worth preserving and fighting for: Love.

We don't have much control over the universe. Despite the optimism of the movies, if an asteroid careens towards our planet, there is nothing we can do to stop it. Nuking a Texas sized asteroid is a fantasy. If said asteroid comes calling, we will be obliterated. If the sun goes beserk, we die. WHEN another ice age comes, many of us will die. Cancer will keep on coming, but even if we cure that... old age will surely get us.

Some people figure, "Hey, no problem. I'm going to Heaven anyway." But if THIS life didn't matter, Jesus wouldn't have spent his life teaching people how to live in. Whatever happens post-death... and no one knows for sure... we have the opportunity to love God, to love others.

So if you are tired of spending yourself for the woefully limited currency of money, consider investing yourself in Love. It's stock has never gone down, and it will prove more sustainable than Facebook.

But if you win the lottery tomorrow, remember the little people, ie, me. I'd love to try steak tartare in Paris someday.