Tuesday, December 19, 2006
Location: Pincher Creek, Alberta

There is something I’ve almost always known intuitively that is now right before my eyes. Everything is connected. Spending time with Blackfoot individuals has brought this idea full circle for me; everything is a relation. Animals, plants, stones, wind, and water: they all contain a spirit and our related to us. To speak of a rock as a relation is maybe too ‘out there’ for some people, and in such a case, I would say turn your attention to the world of physics and science. You’ll find when it comes down to it all, everything is part of the same basic fabric, and everything is related throughout our reality. All of this has me thinking.

When we have a family relation who is financially down and out, it’s only natural for us to give them a hand. If a mother is financially strapped, a son or daughter will become a provider. In the same way, when a son or daughter is in trouble, a parent will often ensure life’s essential needs are met. This Christmas, when you walk past that elderly gentleman ringing a bell for Salvation Army, there’s a good chance you’ll drop a small donation. This is the spirit of giving to our relations, this is the spirit that tells us we are all connected, and those of us who have will give to those who have not. All of this is done without expectation of return.

My point? All of this is a pretty bad financial investment. As to give without the expectation of a financial return seems ludicrous in this day and age.

There are so many of us in this world who really care, and then there are those who only seem to mind their pocket book, with a short-term view of providing for themselves or their children’s future. Regardless of if you are supporting local, sustainable, and organic practices in your daily life, or not, my question remains the same. What are your investments doing?

So many of us may be changing the paradigm in our immediate reality, when meanwhile, our mutual funds are working contrary to everything we claim to believe in.

I recently had a discussion with someone who reinforced this idea that EVERYTHING comes down to economics. Everything comes down to making money and a good return on your initial investment. The almighty dollar! I disagree.

What if we all invested without an expectation of a financial return? Not to throw our money away, but what if we invested because we want to support something dear to us, something important for our collective future, something we feel related to? Bah, obviously a blatant streak of misguided idealism… or is it?

When I look at history, the long-view, it seems everything has come from exactly this sort of investment I’m talking about: an investment not for financial gain, but instead, for a worthwhile result. A tribe shares meat from a hunt, a farmer provides bread to a neighbor, a community comes together to build a home, someone invests in a good idea because it’s an idea they support, something they want to see grow wings. Not out of petty self-interest.

Here and now, with our dollars are we saying we want to support continued environmental destruction, pollution, and global climate change? Or is it willful ignorance in favour of making a quick buck?

I would say, we should all be taking a closer look at our investments, and at this moment in history, we should seriously assess what it is we’re choosing to invest ourselves in.

Only after the last tree has been cut down
Only after the last river has been poisoned
Only after the last fish has been caught
Only then you will find out that money cannot be eaten
- Cree Indian Prophecy

peace,
d