Desperately Seeking Wisdom...

Submitted by peacemaker - September 28, 2008 | Add a Comment

Today is Black Monday, September 29th, 2008. A day of massive financial losses amid the House’s failure to pass the so-called $700 billion bailout, and ever increasing fear of what comes next. How bad will it get? Will all our financial institutions fall, in a domino effect? Will we lose everything? All of which, of course, no one knows, not even the experts and pundits. Those of us who grew up hearing stories of the Great Depression start to wonder if it could really happen again: runs on the banks, record unemployment, long bread lines, tent cities, total collapse of our financial system and free-market economy. And our future. And so, like a deadly virus, panic sets in…sudden and sharp, then slow and steady…infecting every cell of our mind and body. And we feed on it. And the panic leads to rash judgments, pointing the finger of blame, turning on everyone whom we see as “the culprits”– from Wall Street speculators, to politicians, to credit card and mortgage companies, to those at local stores who may now only accept cash. This way lies madness. What if we dared to consider this crisis as the very moment in which we could be shocked into learning a Life Lesson that has so far escaped us? The ancient Book of Proverbs teaches that Life Lesson, ever so succinctly:

For wisdom is more precious than pearls,

and nothing else is so worthy of desire.

I, Wisdom, am mistress of discretion, the inventor of lucidity of thought.

Good advice and sound judgment belong to me

perception to me, strength to me…

The fruit I give is better than gold, even the finest,

The return I make is better than pure silver.

I walk in the way of virtue,

In the paths of justice,

Enriching those who love me,

Filling their treasuries.”

In short, we’ve got to learn some Wisdom. And learn it fast. How is that possible? We could begin by seriously asking ourselves how we could use this terrifying credit crisis to grow rather than shrink. What kind of thought and action could turn this crisis around, on a very personal level, from something disastrous to a beneficial learning experience?

We might start to rely not only on Federal Assistance (in whatever form the bailout eventually comes), but on Personal Assistance – the reality of one human being reaching out to another, regardless of age, level of income, depth of loss. We might do the opposite of what we feel like doing (hunkering down in our self-protective pose), and reach out in daring Acts of Peace.

What if – instead of pointing the finger at others, whether near or far  – we each examined our own culpability in this crisis, our own tendency to greed, to buying things (from clothes to cars to vacations to houses) that we couldn’t afford, to hoarding, to considering ourselves better than the other guy if we were one step further up the ladder? Now the very ladder is breaking apart. We’re all tumbling down together. It would be an Act of Peace just to think about our interdependence.

What if – instead of trying to make one last ditch effort to protect what’s left and thus cutting off all charitable donations – we actually made a small but painful donation to a favorite charity right now, giving away what we can now ill afford to give away? And if we did it with the intention of helping someone who is in a worse state than we are, it would be an Act of Peaceful compassion. And we would see ourselves acting towards others in the very way we hope to see others act toward us.

What if – instead of adopting an attitude of criticism and caustic humor during the remaining vice-presidential and presidential debates -- we actually wished, in a non-partisan attitude, that members of both parties might perform as well as they possibly can, knowing that whoever gets elected will have an impossible job trying to lead us out of this mess and will certainly need our support. Such an Act of non-partisan Peace might actually send out waves all the way to Washington!
 
Of course, you may ask: How could these difficult, but very do-able, Acts of Peace affect our lives, right here and now? They would certainly enable us to feel a much-needed solidarity with others instead of angry isolation, help get small but serviceable amounts of money flowing out to those who need it most (which is the direct cause for our seeing it flow again into our own bank accounts), and open our hearts at a time when the worst thing we can do is shut down, tune out, and become embittered.
Acts of Peace are no more and no less than wise ways of responding to other people and of dealing with world events. These methods of wisdom have been known and practiced for thousands of years, by all religions. Check ‘em out in the Book of Proverbs (especially Chapter 8.) These pearls of Wisdom are still the best currency going, and in fact, the only currency that will not lose its value. And wisely chosen Acts of Peace will rebuild trust…something this country, and indeed, the whole world, sorely needs right now.
In fact, Acts of Peace done when they seem almost impossible to do, may actually make us feel much richer, even in the midst of the worst financial crisis of our generation.

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Comments

On September 30th, 2008 luyen says:

An inspiring blog - i truly enjoyed it! Yesterday when i glanced at the market numbers, it was all red, a wall of red...losses everywhere. I find it humorous when I hear that the market is self-correcting, because really it is us who are self-correcting...going a little too far, wanting a little too much, like a rubber band snapping and stinging us in the process, I think our inner desire to be truly happy and free finds a way to self-corrects!