17 October 2022

Kamál, 02 ‘Ilm (Knowledge), 179 B.E

Seen

A windy, chilly, partly cloudy day. The high temperature didn’t make it to 50F.

Wind to continue through tomorrow with temps not getting out of the 40s. The leaves won’t last long at this rate. With rake in hand, I’ll start Thursday — maybe. A person doesn’t want to rush such pleasures ;-)

Done

Responded to an insightful message from Helen Stucky Risdon in the “Raising the Value of Learning” group on Slack. Our exchange speaks to the primary issue I continue to address in my research and writing: how to bridge the gap between the Monetary Economy and Core Economy for basic needs.

We continue to experience the “warp speed” convergence of our human spirit with our “tools.” Simone Cicero wrote about this phenomenon in “Market Networks, Innovation & Digital Value Chains” in 2018. While Cicero’s article focused on the Monetary Economy, we now see growing evidence of it in the Core Economy. That creates opportunities for timebanking to expand its role.

Success requires us to change how we value ourselves as humans and the technologies we use in the Core Economy. Indeed, it is crucial that “all who begin collaborating have the right attitudes to make solid and very nimble progress.” And “having the right attitudes” means being unencumbered by concern for basic needs.

Your words suggest we are not where we need to be:

What is so objectionable about those traits that cause me to joyfully declare that people are “Wellness Weavers & get Grandmothered In to use the assets in the Global Trust Fund”? It is a catch-22 scenario. Without people using my time & assets, I can’t generate the cash flow to cover property taxes on buildings that were completely paid for prior to sharing my time & paying to attend their events!??? My thoughts-feelings-behaviors demonstrate that I am still stressed by decisions & actions taken by leaders of Time Banking systems…

Others in this Slack group have expressed similar concerns. They spend their time earning money to pay their bills. They have little discretionary time left. That means they can’t commit to projects like Wellness Weavers.

Helen, you are not alone. Several participants in yesterday’s Zoom call expressed concerns about the “time is money” dilemma. How can timebanks reduce this trade-off of time for money? Attendees shared their experiences trying to “monetize” timebanks. Their stories indicated that timebanks are not sustainable during tight economic times.

The problem is that no one has a viable way timebank members can get their basic needs solely by participating in timebank exchanges. Until we find ways, we leave timebank administrators in situations where they will continue to delay progress and marginalize others as protection from total failure.

And it is in bridging the gap between the Monetary Economy and the Core Economy that I hope to make a difference. As Michael Greenman says, “onward and upward to global rebirth!”

Noted

Astral Prospecting snapped a photo of this banded wooly bear (Pyrrharctia isabella) so he can anticipate the upcoming winter’s duration and severity.

Guess we’ll have to wait until spring to know the accuracy of his prediction.

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Quoted

The second classification or division comprises social laws and regulations applicable to human conduct. This is not the essential spiritual quality of religion. It is subject to change and transformation according to the exigencies and requirements of time and place. For instance, in the time of Noah certain requirements made it necessary that all seafood be allowable or lawful. During the time of the Abrahamic Prophethood it was considered allowable, because of a certain exigency, that a man should marry his aunt, even as Sarah was the sister of Abraham’s mother. During the cycle of Adam it was lawful and expedient for a man to marry his own sister, even as Abel, Cain and Seth, the sons of Adam, married their sisters. But in the law of the Pentateuch revealed by Moses these marriages were forbidden and their custom and sanction abrogated. Other laws formerly valid were annulled during the time of Moses. For example, it was lawful in Abraham’s cycle to eat the flesh of the camel, but during the time of Jacob this was prohibited. Such changes and transformations in the teaching of religion are applicable to the ordinary conditions of life, but they are not important or essential. Moses lived in the wilderness of Sinai where crime necessitated direct punishment. There were no penitentiaries or penalties of imprisonment. Therefore, according to the exigency of the time and place it was a law of God that an eye should be given for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. It would not be practicable to enforce this law at the present time—for instance, to blind a man who accidentally blinded you. In the Torah there are many commands concerning the punishment of a murderer. It would not be allowable or possible to carry out these ordinances today. Human conditions and exigencies are such that even the question of capital punishment—the one penalty which most nations have continued to enforce for murder—is now under discussion by wise men who are debating its advisability. In fact, laws for the ordinary conditions of life are only valid temporarily. The exigencies of the time of Moses justified cutting off a man’s hand for theft, but such a penalty is not allowable now. Time changes conditions, and laws change to suit conditions. We must remember that these changing laws are not the essentials; they are the accidentals of religion. The essential ordinances established by a Manifestation of God are spiritual; they concern moralities, the ethical development of man and faith in God. They are ideal and necessarily permanent—expressions of the one foundation and not amenable to change or transformation. Therefore, the fundamental basis of the revealed religion of God is immutable, unchanging throughout the centuries, not subject to the varying conditions of the human world. ¹