Deficit Inattention Disorder

I am positive we are in deep financial doo-doo.

This should come as no surprise what with our body politic afflicted by Mad Cowboy Disease, Truth Decay, and Irony Deficiency, all of which have led to the most devastating condition of all, Deficit Inattention Disorder. As for the bail out plan, unfortunately most of the perpetrators have already bailed out using their golden parachutes, so when the crash comes they will have nothing to worry about. Meanwhile, according to the most recent Greenspan Report, the average American family barely has enough “green” to span the average month. So those of you spiritual folks who’ve long envisioned a moneyless society, your patience is paying off. We’re almost there!

Friends, the economy is in trouble.

It’s a buy-ological fact. A healthy economy is a thriving multi-sell system that needs buyers and sellers. If we look at buying and selling as energy exchanges, we see that that is what life is about — moving energy. An entity that doesn’t move energy is inert. Another word for inert is “dead.”

So the issue isn’t about whether things will be bought and sold, the issue is what are we buying? We build a healthy economy by buying that which builds health, and the more we buy healthy things the more we focus our energy on creating more health. While it is understandable why one might go into “financial hibernation” to preserve valuable resources, giving and receiving is how life continues.

As we collectively awaken with a terrible hangover from our economy’s long borrowing and spending binge, we might ask ourselves, what is truly valuable? What builds health, sanity and functionality? What in our economy do we want more of, and what do we want less of? Every dollar is a vote, so maybe now is the time to vote for what we are most devoted to. So perhaps the economic crisis isn’t about withholding giving … but rather about giving more authentically. It might mean giving a service, a loving homemade gift. It might mean buying selectively from local, green or organic businesses.

Fortunately, money isn’t wealth. In and of itself, it is worthless. If you doubt that, try this simple experiment. Eat your money. While high in fiber, paper money has little nutritional value. And here is something even more amazing. A hundred dollar bill has no more nutritional content than a dollar bill.

So here’s the real good news. As surely as the sun comes up every morning, we have more abundant wealth than we know what to do with. Wealth is energy, and how that energy is used. Not only have we been given solar energy to grow our food and power our lives, we’ve been given soul energy as well – to use and magnify our resources wisely. With the collapse of the house of credit cards economy, we can finally get real. We can use the two most underdeveloped resources on the planet, love and imagination, to re-grow our Garden and have a heaven of a time doing it.

What are YOU doing to help?