Let’s face it: in our faith lives and in the real cost challenges of daily living, money (usually the scarcity or unpredictability of it) plays a more powerful role than any of us would like it to. It’s either the root of all evil, or a constant responsibility. And most of us learn about that very early.   

    

One day when I was in Grade 3 or 4, I found a quarter on my way to school and couldn’t believe my good fortune. In the mid-1950s that quarter could buy a loaf of bread and a quart of milk, or enough candy to make a kid sick for a week. Today, finding a $10 bill would have about the same impact.

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All morning, I could think of nothing else except what my unexpected windfall might buy. But when I went home for lunch and told my mom, she walked me down the block to the “grownups” bank, where I reluctantly passed the precious quarter to a teller, who wrote it down (by hand!) in my little red passbook. Out of sight, out of mind… or, in mom language, “This will give you time to think about it.”

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It’s a bit humbling all these years later, remembering how obsessed I was with that 25-cent piece, even if only for a few hours. But the thinking part stuck.

Things are much different today. As seasoned adults in a consumer-driven, open-ended linear capitalist economy (learned from Isaiah Ritzmann’s workshops…) we all know that there is really no “free” money.

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The biggest problem in our world is the inequitable distribution of it, due to the power and greed of just 1-2% of humanity. When governments “give” us cash, they are really giving us money we originally paid them in taxes. And of course, they want our votes in return.

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But there is one thing we can do to make a difference.

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Having a little more of what economists hilariously call “disposable income” gives us some temporary agency (in other words, real personal power) to put more of our money into places where we might wish governments were spending it on our behalf. Places like affordable housing, healthcare, food security, services for the homeless, help for the disabled, preservation of the environment, compensation for land and lives stolen from our indigenous sisters and brothers, and myriad options for humanitarian aid worldwide.

That doesn’t mean we should feel obligated to allocate all of our federal-provincial government “windfall” to others. Let’s face it; some of us have to constantly patch up threadbare budgets just to stay out of debt, especially at this time of year.

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But even a little extra from everyone who receives a rebate could make a vast difference—not only for the many causes that Mount Zion members already support (like synod benevolence, the food card ministry, Supportive Housing of Waterloo, Feather and Cross, Open Sesame and more), but right across the country.

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Perhaps your government rebate(s) might prompt you to support a cause you always wanted to help, but could never afford to. For some valuable tips on finding, evaluating, or choosing a charity, check out Canada Helps (https://www.canadahelps.org/en/)

And with the added challenges of an ongoing postal strike, you might also consider sending digital Christmas cards and presents through CLWR’s “Gifts from the Heart” (https://www.clwr.org/)

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The good news about this coming “free” government money is that you’ve got time for some thoughtful homework on what to do with it.

Consider getting into a good book over the holidays, like the excellent Doughnut Economics by Kate Raworth (2017), or one of the many people-centred books by Hazel Henderson (1933-2022), such as Planetary Citizenship (2004) and Ethical Markets: Growing the Green Economy (2006). I had the privilege of meeting and interviewing Prof. Henderson and it transformed my entire mindset about the tangible and intangible potential of human, rather than monetary, currency.

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And just published this fall is a small, but mighty volume by Robin Wall Kimmerer (famous for Braiding Sweetgrass), called The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World (2024) which explores how this common North American shrub represents the mutually beneficial cyclical abundance of nature itself. Kimmerer’s message to human society is simple, but not always easy: the time to share is not when you have an excess, but when you have enough.

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While there’s no perfect one-size-fits-all answer for how to spend a financial windfall of any kind, consider the radical power of living a faith in which we help to create enough for others, instead of contributing to scarcity.

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-- Pauline Finch (Justice through Service Committee)     

  

 

 

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