This article was previously published in Network News Issue 24 Autumn 2000.

“Would you like to write something about money?” I was asked. Money? Me? Why? Having spent some five years as finance director of the Foundation in the 1980s. Having gone through the familiar route of many community members of running through my personal savings, experiencing poverty for a while and thus coming to a real understanding of real values. Having used the Money Game as a part of workshops and observed peoples’ attitude to it. What do I know about money?

I have facilitated the Money Game (invented by Daniel Ofman who lived here in the 1970s and 1980s) in workshops for many years, and have observed in it what have become very familiar sub-personalities which also appear in real life.

There is the Robin Hood who wants to rob from the rich and give to the poor. There is the socialist who wants everybody to be equal, whether they like it or not. There is the social worker who wants to save everyone even if they don’t want that. There is the rubber money which no sooner lands in front of someone than they pass it on, being unable to receive. There was a lad who played in the same game as his dad and sat on a pile of cash refusing to part with it, to his dad’s fury, ‘cos it was the first time he had got his father by the short and curlies. There was one character who very carefully checked every rule with me before playing so that he could stick just inside the rules, be totally “legal” and still succeed in screwing everybody. (Bring me my trusty tax lawyer.)

I watch different folk play this fascinating game and give me the gift of wonderful observations of how my attitudes and life are formed and messed up.

Sometimes, living in this community, I worry that I do not have a proper wage or a pension at the end of the day. Got to “put some by”. Usually, I am sensible, and then for nothing more than a whim I give a ridiculous sum away.

I see the society around me as the same. A magnified version of me. We all seem to think that we are safe, secure, immune from harm as long as we have money in our pocket or the bank.

Is the Findhorn Foundation safe and secure if it has a financially stable and sustainable lifestyle? I don’t think so. Our sustainability is based on our remembering spirit, putting first things first, caring for each other and the planet. The money is a very good barometer of how well we are doing that. The flow of cash in and out does not depend on the strength of the Pound, or hitting the right markets, or the current economic trends in the world. This place (and all others) depends on the caring and the open-heartedness of the people who make it up. The health of a country depends on its willingness to give, and care for people and plants and animals both individually and as groups, nations, planets.

And here in the Foundation, we have bills to pay. We would show little integrity if we gave you folks a wonderful Experience Week and then at the end of the week could not afford to pay for the food you ate. And to be useful and to affect the lives of the citizens of our beloved planet in positive ways, we need to be a part of that world and function in it without exploiting it or getting taken over by it.

Yes, money is important, it’s fun, it’s a measure and it can be useful. But it is a tool that can be used for good or ill. Think about it, use it. Don’t let it use you. Enjoy it.

With wallet-fulls of blessings, Richard Mark-Coates

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image: by John McArthur on Unsplash