A friend recently shared words from Pope Francis about the invisible, yet strong control economics has over us. The following was evoked by my reflection on his thoughts…
The invisibleness about which the Pope speaks is related to the connectedness of economics to culture. Economics has a high status in our culture, and perhaps most if not all cultures in the world. That which is given status in a culture becomes that which starts and therefore pervades thinking… and that which is seen to be of ultimate value. And yes, it is invisible… like the water fish swim in, like the air we breathe. This stood out to me with great clarity when an article in the newspaper about my sister’s death ended with the words, “Kremer was at fault”… definitely an economic statement… not a statement about the sad sudden tragic death of a young and healthy woman… not even a teaching statement that she made a mistake while bicycling home from work at twilight… not a statement about how her spirit and energy would be missed by so many. No, we approach most things in our culture with who was at fault, to blame, to receive the economic consequences, and on and on. And we are so accustomed to this that we do not even notice its continuous presence and power.
From all of this, we can see that this is not a subject for problem-solving; we cannot focus our work of now on changing and redirecting economics… for by so doing, we are merely “re-arranging the chairs on the Titanic.” We are still on the Titanic, the Titanic of an economics determined and directed culture. We need to create a new culture… a culture that works for all children… and have faith that a culture that works for all children, a culture that gives status to what works for all children, is a culture that will get its economics right and put them in their rightful place… not leading our thinking, but a tool for living in ways that work for all children and for the vitality and viability of living earth upon which all children depend.
So, perhaps in a way of summary, these truths come to the fore:
Now called for is a radical shift in the start point of our thinking:
*FROM starting our thinking with economics (and its ever-present ideological fighting over ownership, legality and rights),
*TO beginning our thinking with the Mother’s command, Work for all my children – all children in the world… and the Father’s super-ordinate command, Eternalize life on earth, of earth… and their ever-present call for two or more gathering in intentional dialogue, with love in the process… dialogue leading to intuitively, prayerfully accessing the wisdom of intent essential for seeing and taking up this work of now.
Beginning thinking from economics is not what “the bad guys do”; it is the culture we ALL swim in (consider our attachments to ownership, laws and rights; to pre-formed ideological answers to how money and property should be exchanged, spent, used).
Beginning our thinking from economics both comes from and leads to self-centeredness, extraction and divisiveness.
Beginning our thinking with what works for all children in the world and speaks for living earth ultimately leads us to wholeness, all-inclusive love, and a flourishing earth.
All of which calls upon us to always remember, “we cannot put new wine into old wine skins…” we cannot change old culture; we need to create new culture. New wine is work for all children in the world, speak for living earth. Change the start point of our thinking. If we work on economics, fight against the ways of economics, the status of economics, we find ourselves trying to patch up the old skins, we find ourselves demonizing, attacking, defending, and on and on. Hence the essentiality of taking the role of intentionally grandmothering all children and living earth. This is what makes grandmothering intentional. Intentional grandmothering is the initiating role; the role creating the active living presence of the new culture… a culture that works for all children in the world, a culture that speaks for living earth.
Sandra M. Smith, Philosopher of Potential
