Money Worries

Today I got into a very good conversation about money and creativity with Ali, namely: why is it that people in control of money are often the most creatively challenged? This is a long-debated question in the Arts, and the reason why we have to put up with endless barrages of the “next big thing,” which is really a recycled last thing that was, in truth, never that big at all. It is in no way conclusive that money and creativity are on opposing sides; in fact, they often share the playing field. Coomaraswamy wrote it best: “Whereas it was once the highest purpose of life to achieve freedom from oneself, it is now our will to secure the greatest possible measure of freedom for oneself, no matter from what.”

Money, like every other substance, is first and foremost an energy, and how we make and spend it directly coincides with our relationship to our personal concept of duty. Our mode of life – the “deck we’ve been given to play with” – fluctuates by how it is that we play (a nicer idea than “exist,” “live” or the dreadful “make a career”). When we cultivate a deep understanding of wealth, that it is a communal energy and should be distributed with caution, certainly, but also compassion and understanding, worries about hoarding capital dissipate. It is only a fearful relationship developed within ourselves that creates worries over finance (note: not about having, but keeping and distributing meagerly), a process that spills into every facet of our being.

Money, one of the most demanded instruments in our culture, too often takes precedence over numerous others: health, well-being, family (not supporting one with shelter, food, clothing, etc, but actively participating in it on a committed level) and so on. The paradox we smash into is that in order to make more money we place ourselves into mentally unstable situations because we’re forever raising the demands we place onto ourselves; if we envisioned what we actually need to survive, instead of the manner by which we create illusions of necessity, how different our conceptions of wealth would be!

Worries of money points toward a general lack of faith in a higher order. Faith implies you will be taken care of by an infrastructure other than the office you work inside or the doctor that prescribes to you. If you cultivate an open relationship with internal certainty (which is essentially what faith is) there need not be concerns about survival – in fact, you’ll most likely live for just as long as you should! Granted, it might not be the exact survival you imagined for yourself, but what dangers in always thinking ahead. The task at hand is to notice your immediate surroundings; if you cannot be faithful in this moment, the future truly has nothing to offer.

The relationship between creativity and money, then, is an interesting terrain to survey. It is a recurring mythology that the artist creates something out of nothing (and the parallel of this to scriptural divinity) while those with something do nothing with it. It is not always the case that nothing leads to something, nor that holding (ownership is too strong a word) something does not propel more something; yet a general folklore repeats this story of the starving dying, eating little, or, in fairy tales, winning the gold. I suppose, again, it depends on how you play this game.

I wonder about the people with something. Where does the power struggle originate, this push-and-pull obsession with either a) keeping money secure, b) gaining more of it or, as they are usually siblings, c) both? This constant chess is a most circuitous route, and yet, we come to realize: this is the creation of art itself! We do not actually create art; Art creates us. If we want to open a serious dialogue about that which cannot be spoken of, this eternal energy we have words to signify without defining, we must understand our roles of transmitters of this energy; the more we believe ourselves to own it, the further from it we are. One can only push the square through the circle so many times before realizing it’s the wrong hole.

When we see our lives in this light, as part of a process that is immutable and continuous, we realize there is nothing to worry about. Without this inner completion, the power struggles we see surrounding not only money, but political, social and spiritual dealings, keep us in static. For a clear signal, worries are an energetic connection we need to unplug. Anxiety is the mark of believing that our lives have no greater purpose than the acquisition of goods.

Then what is the purpose? Creation of course! We are nothing save the process we are involved in naturally; as Alan Watts noticed, we are not born into this world, but from it. Everything is cyclic – it is born, grows, bears itself, lives, dies. The most graceful examples of existence are uncluttered, free to exist in splendor. When you enter the thick of the forest weeds suffocate the wildlife; none pass through dead ends. The most direct path to the light fosters the greatest warmth.

For those with nothing, have faith! If your creation arises from a place of purity in intention and expression, it is involved in the clear process. Fear, self-doubt, suffering, these are weeds we need not let clutter our paths. The artist travels with a pen and scythe, never showing the latter, being secure in the knowledge of its operation.