What makes our world go around? I don’t mean the earth rotating on its axis as it revolves around the sun, creating the days, seasons and years.
Maybe time makes the world go around. Where would we be without time? Imagine showing up for work after waking, eating, cleaning up and commuting to the office with no clock or phone to tell you it was time. How could such a place be productive with some people arriving before dawn and others rolling in after lunch? We depend on this time system decided long ago, the dividing up the hours and days by seconds and minutes. Yep, it’s time that makes the world go around.
Not so fast, says the world marketplace. Money makes the world go around. Isn’t that what Joel Grey and Liza Minnelli sang in Cabaret? “Money makes the world go around, the world go around, the world go around.” I believe it is true. Money is a tool we use to trade a bunch of coins or notes or digital dollars for goods or services. Money is a goal in and of itself. No matter what your vocation, you do it for money, otherwise it’s just a hobby. We have no choice. The landlord asks for some every month. So does the grocer or the butcher and especially the online go-to place where you can order billions of items with a click and then tap your fingers in anticipation until it shows up at your door, sometimes within hours. We need money to make a living, to live. Then we need more because we’d like a faster car or a bigger house or the latest fashion, lest we appear less than.
Less than what? The influencers who sway their minions by a mere mention, convincing followers to buy this brand, look this way, think like them? Less than your neighbors? Remember keeping up with the Joneses? I don’t know about the proverbial families named Jones who live next door, but their neighbors are in a heap of debt. Yet money is useful, necessary. So we study. We work hard. We improve our skills, and we dream of making it big in whichever field we have chosen.
Here’s to the laborers and strivers who honor the idea of work with service to others. There is no greatest doctor award, no golden statue handed to teachers or nurses, no trophy for trash collectors. Just money. Don’t get me started on the upside-down value system that thinks nothing of paying an athlete millions to bash someone around a field or court. Sure, they get bashed around too, but is it worth the huge salaries? When teachers literally put their lives on the line every day just so our children can learn how to make it in this world? How to survive? How to study? How to work and how to pursue their very own dream?
Is it the love of money that gets us off track? The misquote from the Bible says money is the root of all evil, but it is the love of money that is the root. Do you get that? Money is a tool. We need it in today’s world. Otherwise we’d be in a mess, bartering one form of artistry or expertise for another. Money is a hard, physical thing. Well, it used to be. Now it is an idea of a balance held somewhere in cyberspace. Somehow we keep track of who has what, who has more. When did that become the same thing as who is most valued? The last time I looked, one person was equal to another, at least in the eyes of our Creator. Loving money more than all the good and untouchable things, the things that are eternal, never wasting away, is bringing our world to a screeching halt.
I think of people in history who devoted their lives to power or wealth or greatness. While massive wealth can equal power, it is not the same as greatness. Those who ruled the world or owned the most physical wealth died without taking any of it with them. Then there are the great. The discovers, the visionaries, the teachers, the geniuses. They’ve died too, but the gifts they gave the world live on. I turn to Eleanor Roosevelt and Ralph Waldo Emerson for inspiration. I remember Helen Keller and Margaret Mead for their explanation of the human spirit. I’m thankful to Thomas Edison and Albert Einstein and even Steve Jobs for their innovations that changed the world. I’m especially thankful for Mahatma Gandhi and Mother Teresa for their example of peace and love above all else.
I have no idea how much wealth any of those people gathered during their brief time on our big, round world. It doesn’t matter. The way they lived matters. Their lives, their examples and even their sacrifices made our lives better.
I’d like to think I would say thank you to all the people who work to serve others in whatever way they choose. The truth is, I forget to notice or I’m ignorant of the hundreds of hands that worked to bring me a simple meal or fashion a car out of metal and plastic. So I’ll offer a prayer of thanks to anyone who dedicates their lives to create goodness, health, teaching, sustenance, art, music, philosophy, knowledge and convenience. You make my world go around. People have been helping each other since the dawn of time. Before there was money, before there was even a system of time, there was the drive to help. I guess it’s that love that makes the world go around. It’s not time, it’s not money. It’s love.
All we need is love, sing the Beatles. Love is all we need, which makes my world go around. Thanks for sharing and thanks for acknowledging all those who have a hand in bringing food to our table.