Bill Shakespeare has the Duke say, " If thou art rich, thou'rt poor; for, like an ass whose back with ingots bows, thou bear'st thy heavy riches but a journey and death unloads thee. " And also, if you're not young but old----"When thou art old and rich, thou hast neither heat , affection, limb, nor beauty, to make your riches pleasant." (Measure for Measure.}
Wealth has taken a beating these days and maybe it's a good thing. Maybe we should adopt the "Year of Release" every seven years when all debts are forgiven and we start again. Fat chance ! I really don't believe that anyway. It might have worked in the ancient tight little colony of the Hebrews. Maybe we should have a a Hebrew " Year of Jubilee " every fifty years when land is returned to the dispossessed. If the Dukes of Sutherland had thereby left a nobler legacy, most of us would have never found ourselves in Canada. If you believe that Bill Shakespeare had it right it still "cuts no ice." Some will still cling to what they have until the agonal state arrives.
On the other note a more modern playwright, Frederico Fellini, had his wealthy dying Grandee saying, I paraphrase, "If you eat me you will partake of my bounty. " The penultimate scene in Fellini Satyricon is the inheritors sitting around a large table munching doggedly on the corpse to fulfill the conditions of the will. They are clearly not enthralled by the means to the end but it shows where Fellini puts the bounty hunters.
How much, money seems to rule. How much misery it has caused. How much sacrifice it has driven. How little stability it really provides. How much joy it has erased. How manipulated those who receive. Of course we all know that money per se is not evil ; it is the love of money that leads to destruction, Money can provide ease ; the love of money provides dis-ease.
Our values have been so skewed by reward, that it is difficult to carve a path that combines the growth of the soul with the necessities of the flesh. People give up trying. They become cynical. Anger arises at the fetters that have become bonds and chains. Ambivalence confounds even the gentle.
Wealth has taken a beating these days and maybe it's a good thing. Maybe we should adopt the "Year of Release" every seven years when all debts are forgiven and we start again. Fat chance ! I really don't believe that anyway. It might have worked in the ancient tight little colony of the Hebrews. Maybe we should have a a Hebrew " Year of Jubilee " every fifty years when land is returned to the dispossessed. If the Dukes of Sutherland had thereby left a nobler legacy, most of us would have never found ourselves in Canada. If you believe that Bill Shakespeare had it right it still "cuts no ice." Some will still cling to what they have until the agonal state arrives.
On the other note a more modern playwright, Frederico Fellini, had his wealthy dying Grandee saying, I paraphrase, "If you eat me you will partake of my bounty. " The penultimate scene in Fellini Satyricon is the inheritors sitting around a large table munching doggedly on the corpse to fulfill the conditions of the will. They are clearly not enthralled by the means to the end but it shows where Fellini puts the bounty hunters.
How much, money seems to rule. How much misery it has caused. How much sacrifice it has driven. How little stability it really provides. How much joy it has erased. How manipulated those who receive. Of course we all know that money per se is not evil ; it is the love of money that leads to destruction, Money can provide ease ; the love of money provides dis-ease.
Our values have been so skewed by reward, that it is difficult to carve a path that combines the growth of the soul with the necessities of the flesh. People give up trying. They become cynical. Anger arises at the fetters that have become bonds and chains. Ambivalence confounds even the gentle.
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