The Sustainist

Drawing on Holy Currencies Week 9

Have and Have Not

The gap between those who have plenty and those who have little is getting wider. If you are wondering who are the ones who have plenty or too much, all you need to do is to open your closet and see how much stuff you have accumulated and how much stuff you don’t used anymore.  When stuff is not being used, it is a waste, not flowing into the benevolent exchange of resources.

  

Sendhil Mullainathan and Eldar Shafir, in their book Scarcity, called this forgotten stuff “closet castaways” and they “are so common that space, not money, becomes the scarce commodity.  People need to rent out self-storage facilities to house all their stuff.  Some estimate that over $12 billion is spent annually on self-storage, three times as much as is spent on music purchases.  In fact, the United States has more than two billion spare feet allocated to self-storage space.”

 

What happens if we think of these closet castaways as resources and invest them back into our communities?

 

Remembering there are many who have nothing, while we have so much extra that we don’t use, should drive us to do something about it if we want to be good stewards.  I completed this week’s activities by drawing an imaginary “Exchange Center” through which “those who have” can donate stuff and “those who have little” can get what they need.  I imagine it not just being a thrift shop but more a social business in which there can be exchanges of all kinds of goods and services.  This Exchange Center may include temporary housing for those who need it and in exchange, the residents offer their currency of time to work at the store. 

This is how it might work:  The store receives donations of goods hiding in people’s closets.  Each item is priced in a range between $0 and the estimated monetary price.  Some shoppers who can afford it may pay at a higher rate while those who have no financial resources can take it for free.  In any case, the shoppers are then asked to consider other ways to contribute to the ministry in exchange for the items that they receive.  This can be done by asking them to fill out a card to describe their offering in currencies other than money.  Depending on the gifts and talents of the shoppers, they might offer, for example, to clean someone’s house, or to custom knit a sweater for someone that can be worth “x” amount of money.  These cards of offering are then posted on a bulletin board in the store.  A shopper might decide to “buy” the custom knit sweater or the cleaning service with money, which would go to support the ministry or he/she might pay with other currencies by offering something else by filling out another card.  The Exchange Center provides opportunities for the people who run the ministry to build relationships with the shoppers. Also, the shoppers are getting to know each other in the process of exchanging goods, time, treasure, and talent. The shoppers who can afford to pay with money at the higher range will offset the cost for those who receive the goods free and should provide enough monetary income to pay for the cost of running such a ministry.

 

Remember to post your colored pictures online using #holycurrencies.

Drawing on Holy Currencies Week 8

Change?!

To be a good steward, we are often faced with change:  changing the way we think about money and other resources, changing how we deal with our fear of not having enough, stepping outside the traditional understanding of stewardship, exploring what it means to live in abundance, learning how to realize Jubilee, etc.  So this week, you are invited to explore how you know you are safe and secure without having to change.  More importantly, we invite you to explore in what conditions are you willing and able to consider new ways, new things, crossing old boundaries, exploring new ideas.  Here are some of the fruits of my sentence completion exercise:

I am comfortable when I am warm at home.

I don't have to change when I am with people who know me and accept me for who I am.

I don’t have to learn new things when I am doing something that I have done many times and I know it works.

I feel safe when I am in a familiar environment and there are no surprises.

I feel secure when I have people whom I trust around me.

I am complacent when I see only what I want to see.

I am complacent when I am isolated and cannot see and experience others’ suffering.

I am willing to learn new things when there is a supportive community of people who encourage me and not judge me when I make mistakes.

I will explore the possibility of change when destructive things are happening.

I will want to discover new ways when the old way is not working.

I will want to discover new things when I have time and I am not tired and have no energy to be thinking and learning and analyzing.

I will delve into something new when I am creating something new – writing a new song, researching a new book, etc.

I am open to new ideas when I am not threatened.

I will investigate something unfamiliar when I don’t understand it.

I am curious when I see the possibility of new relationships, new knowledge. 

I am willing to step outside of my boundary when there is an invitation from people out there who can guide me.  

I am willing to step outside of my boundary when I know that I will not be hurt and that there are people who support me.

I am able to break the barriers that limit me when I know I have something to give and I know I am a beloved child of God.

I am able to step into the margin when I know the center isn’t the center anymore and that compassion, learning, exploration, and justice work are happening in the margins with others who also are in the margins to explore new ways to be good neighbors together.

 

• This week is also time to check in with your accountable person (AP).
• Remember to post the colored picture online using #holycurrencies.

 

Drawing on Holy Currencies Week 7

Sabbath and Jubilee

Wow! This is a heavy bible week! Don’t be overwhelmed. Read one of these texts multiple times each day. Do some coloring and write down your thoughts and inspiration. Coloring the picture may help you connect more with the texts.

Here are some of my thoughts about Sabbath and Jubilee and the currency of wellness.

The weekly Sabbath, the Sabbatical year, and the Jubilee year, as described in the Bible passages in Chapter 7 of Holy Currencies, are key to creating a sustainable healthy community and, in the Judeo-Christian context, they are commanded by God for the human community to follow. They provide an overall rhythm for work and rest—every seven days, everybody rests, including the animals. Every seven years, we cancel debts and let the earth rest as well. The most radical of all is the prescription of the Jubilee year—every 50th year, not only do we let the earth rest, and forgive everyone’s debt, we also let people have a home and family to return to. That is, every 50th year we start over—socially, economically, and ecologically.

God knows that in every human community, no matter how egalitarian its beginnings might be, the circulation of financial and other resources and power in social relationships will eventually become uneven. Some will suffer; others will continue to prosper. The institution of the Sabbath, the sabbatical year, and Jubilee is God’s way of ensuring that economic, financial and ecological resources will recover their healthy circulation. Just as the circulatory system of the human body brings nutrients and energy to every part of the body, God longs for the human community to have a healthy circulation of our resources, reaching not just the powerful and rich of our society but everyone.

Furthermore, God also anticipates that humankind, in our working and consuming the fruits of the land, might obstruct the rejuvenation cycles of the earth. Thus, God insists that we let the land rest as part of the restoring of the flow between the earth and human society. Even though the concept of Jubilee has never been fully realized, it remains the most powerful command for human communities to move toward wellness physically, socially, economically, and ecologically. By doing so, we can be spiritually healthy.

 

• Remember to post your colored picture online using #holycurrencies.

Drawing on Holy Currencies Week 6

Go Exercise/Physical Wellness

Physical wellness is an important currency because if you are not physically well, you are not able to do much. So for this week, be conscious of your experience of physical exercise. No guilt please. Just do it and reflect on it. Who knows? You might decide to exercise regularly from this week on if you are not doing it already.

I usually go to the gym 1 to 3 times a week to stretch and do a little weightlifting.  By the end the exercise period, my heart rate is always up.  After I cool down, I often feel calmer and more relaxed.  This week, I decided to measure my blood pressure soon after I cooled down and, to my surprise, for the first time in a long time, my blood pressure was below 130/80!  I have been trying for years to lower my blood pressure (My family genetics are partly to blame-- all my siblings have high blood pressure after 50).  So, the moral of the story is, I need to be more disciplined in regular exercise!  Dah . . .

This might be a good week to go exercise with friends, especially with other “Drawers.”

Besides regular exercise, there are other elements that contribute to our physical wellness.  For me, they are:

• Get enough daily sleep (not too much) and good hygiene
• Take my blood pressure and cholesterol medications
• Take vitamin supplement especially vitamin B
• Wash my hands regularly before I touch my eyes or handle food, especially after I have been in public touching hands, doors, railings, etc.
• Breathe deeply and intentionally and channel the energy to relax my muscles, especially around my neck, shoulders, and lower back.
• Get my weekly sabbath- at least 2 consecutive days.
• Use a pillow to support my lower back when I sit for a long time like driving or in a movie theater, restaurant or lecture hall with chairs with no back support.
• Once a month, if I can afford it, I get a massage!

I also realize that my physical wellness has always connected with my level of creativity.  By the second day of my sabbath, I inevitably will be writing poems and songs.  That usually is an indication that my body and my brain are relaxed enough to let the spirit flow!

Remember to take a photo of your creation and share it with other Holy Currencies Drawers using #holycurrencies.