#43 Spending and Saving

SPENDING AND SAVING

I struggle at my little plot at the community garden with
waiting too long to harvest my vegetables. I’m always waiting for them to
grow just a little bit bigger, or saving them for later when I might need
them more. But if I wait too long, they get bitter or tough, or fall off
the vine. It’s particularly hard in the spring, when everything edible
that’s made it through the winter seems like a miracle. You don’t want to
just gobble up your miracles!

I’m not a big spender in general, while I’m a very good saver,
so I guess this attitude toward the garden shouldn’t surprise me. But it
really doesn’t make sense. As I promise myself this year to pick generously
and go for the goal of using everything up, I find myself pondering the
larger question of spending and saving. Are there other things that are
better spent than saved?

Well clearly, for starters, there is our time. One of the
problems with all the emphasis in our culture on technology that helps us
save time is that it offers no help in making wise decisions about spending
it. Yet if we don’t choose to spend our time today, it’s wasted and gone.

When we think about energy, spending often has a negative
connotation. We have expended too much, or it is spent. Conservation is
seen as wise. True, it’s not good to push our bodies beyond their capacity,
or deny them rest when they have been assaulted and need to recover. But in
a way, our energy is like our time. If we don’t make choices about how to
spend today’s supply, it’s gone forever.

Then there is caring. Again, the inclination to be protective
and spend it cautiously is strong. We want to put our caring into safe
investments, where we can count on it yielding good returns. This is
understandable, given how often it has been abused, starting when we were
very young. But from another perspective, it is our nature to care, and
withholding today will not increase the amount we have for tomorrow. If we
can get access to that well of natural caring, there is an endless supply
(though we’ll probably have to grieve as well, to keep the channels clear).
We can care hugely, every day, and there will still be the same amount left.

Money may be the hardest. Good arguments can be made for both
spending and saving. But I wonder, if we put our attention to being big
spenders in other ways—-in time and energy and caring—-maybe the money
choices will be easier to sort out.

In the meantime, I plan to harvest this season with more thought
to the present. Yes, I’ll try to spread out the season and think about what
can be preserved. But then I’ll pick my vegetables when they are new and
when they are in their prime and not wait. I’ll use them up—-enjoying each
mouthful—-and put my faith in the seeds and the land’s ability to produce
again.

Pamela Haines
4/06
Philadelphia


Some things that have given me hope recently:

People I know, and others I don't, who are having success in creating a work
life that gives them time with their children.

So many people of all religions who enter into the transformative heart of
their faith, rather than using it as a tool to judge or divide and repress.

All the people who dig holes to plant trees--and all the trees they plant.