Money (Pink Floyd song) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

My favourite ADD/ADHD coach is writing a series about What Kind of World Do You Want to Live In? and this weeks post is about Money.  click this link to read Money Motivation Mythology by Madelyn Griffith-Haynie http://addandsomuchmore.com/2012/04/10/money-motivation-mythology/

I have to say my relationship with money is not similar to how my parents and siblings feel about money.  It’s not even similar to my Hubby’s beliefs.  However, it is certainly not unique, nor even original in thought…I think.

I have no particular strong feelings for money, whether it be a lot of money or not enough money.  Actually, I often wonder what constitutes “not enough money”.

Money (Photo credit: 401K)

Because really, not enough money means there is not enough money to provide shelter, warmth and sustenance.  It does not mean there’s not enough money to pay off the giant credit card bills used to buy meaningless toys, gadgets etc.  It does not mean not enough money to pay the outlandish mortgage payment on the giant houses or gas guzzling vehicles etc.

You get the picture.

Without money (Photo credit: Toban Black)

For me money is just this society’s tool to sustain our basic needs.  Anything else it does is superfluous.  Money is not the “root of all evil”.  People are the root of all evil.

Greed envy-m (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I remember going head to head on the subject with my parents, particularly my father, about this very subject, years and years ago when I was a teenager.  My feelings about money then have not changed 40 years later.  Does this mean I suffer from arrested development?  Immaturity?  Whatever.

My father believed that money was the “be-all and end-all” in life.  He was driven to the pursuit of money his entire life.  He firmly believed that without money people did not have any friends.

Everything in the World That Money Can Buy (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I found that thought so incredibly offensive at the time I immediately got into a yelling match with dear old Dad that continued every time we were in the same room together.  I regarded him with disdain, sometimes pity, but mostly with a sneering disdain.  Money gave him the means to be flashy, attract people who gave him a sense of superficial worth and made him feel important.  Sad really.  At the time, it was just annoying.  And provoking.

After all, I was the quintessential hippie in training, embracing the opposite of what society valued at the time.

Hippie Powers Man! (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Now, I’m just blasé about money.  Pay the mortgage.  Buy the food.  Pay the utilities.   I have some…great.  I have none…bummer/oh well.   That is all I want/need in a nutshell.

money (Photo credit: 401K)

Everything else is about killing time, an upcoming post that is in the works.  Keep an eye for that.  Controversial it will be.

So, the kind of world I want to live in is a kinder, gentler world.  A world that does not worship the almighty dollar in any way.  Celebrities are people who do not promote excess.  Violence is not the norm.  Money does not make the world go round.  People are not killing other people for money.  Greed is a foreign concept.  The one with the most toys does not win.

DVD Cover of "Last Hippie Standing" (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

People can have what they need for free.  Because they need it, not because they want it.