Wealth

Today I am philosophical; here are some of my thoughts on wealth. You all know that I like nice things and I am not afraid of spending money. But I also come to appreciate other kinds of wealth in this world – family, friendship, nature, spirit within and interconnectivity among people.

We live in a world of plenty. Abundance is everywhere, especially in nature. All our resources come from nature – food, building materials, gold, even dollar bills themselves. We have what we need. We need to have respect of this great wealth.

But look at what man has done over the ages to get what they think is “wealth” from resources? Here in the Amazon is a good example – in the late 1800s first the rubber barons came. (Rubber tree "tapped" in picture on left) Land was fought over – Indians were killed, natural seeds from here were stolen (Henry Wickham smuggled them to England to be planted elsewhere), the country-side and cities were left barren (Santarem hardly has any trees!), the people penniless, and Wickham himself did not become rich but penniless – his just desserts. Then in the 1920’s Ford thought he would build a utopian factory-like place here in the Amazon (Fordlandia) growing rubber trees for tires and related parts for his successful auto industry. He paid no attention to local habitat, agricultural methods that would work here nor local culture. So boom and bust. Gold seekers in the 1970s ,and now we have the modern lumber barons, and soybean farmers – scathing the land without replenishing.

Some people/countries have always profited from what others have. Manifest destiny, in the name of religion, or power- lust. What is it they are looking for? What does it mean to be wealthy? Does one ever have “enough”? Do they ever get what they want if it is power or money if they do not use it wisely? Things that one takes away, without a good intention, are often taken away easily by others.
(Picture on left - outside of town - soybean fields after Amazon forest cut down recently )
Look at our global world today. Oil is king. We fight wars over it, people are killed, resources are used up and not replaced.

To be wealthy truly, we need to nurture nature and ourselves.,;. These are things that no one can take away from us. I remember St Exupery’s book The Little Prince,” je suis responsable” he says with regards to the little flower he found and took care of on an unidentified planet. We are all responsible for nature.

(Picture on left - local soybean and rice factory )

Indiginous people all over the world found wealth in appreciating, using wisely, and recycling nature. Their lessons are simple and wise. So I am relearning:
Respect the resources that you have
Replenish what you take.
Only use what you need, even money since it is just another energy resource from the universe. Use it wisely

Maybe some day we will evolve in consciousness enough to use “wealth” to eradicate all poverty in the world, instead of destroying our environment and killing people to gain resources in one local or another. Maybe we can learn to be kind to ourselves, others, and the environment.