Mark Pavilons
Spreading wealth wisely?

I have come to a terrible realization - that monetary wealth, unless it’s used wisely and shared with others - is virtually worthless.

I know that may come to a shock to many of my readers, some of whom enjoy the rather affluent lifestyle that’s associated with Caledon.

I have known this for some time, and tried to get this message across subtly to my faithful readers. At least I can relish in the fact that banging my head against the wall burns an average of 150 calories per hour! At that rate, I’ll be lean and mean before you know it!

The truth, my friends, is at the end of many an upturned nose. You need not look any further than the end of your own driveway.

In what’s likely the richest continent on the planet, we North Americans are frittering away our time, in search of money and wealth. The other strange truth is that once we attain it, it’s often not enough and we continue on this rather strange journey of gluttony.

According to the current Dalai Lama, in all of his travels abroad he noticed that those with nothing seemed less anxious. And, he mentioned that very few of the wealthy in our midst knew how to use wealth intelligently - “not in luxurious living but sharing it with the needy.”

Recent headlines proclaimed our insatiable appetites for money and power. Public service employees, who command huge salaries and benefits, felt they deserved more and padded their expense accounts and drove around in taxpayer-filled SUVs, even claiming that free gas. I can understand taking advantage of the perks of a certain job, but come on folks, milking the system (which is paid for by you and I) is going too far. Greed is a very ugly thing. It seems it’s standing room only at the trough. As Meat Loaf indicates in a new song: “in the land of the pig, the butcher is king!”

Am I being too critical of the preoccupation with affluence? Maybe. I’ve chuckled up a storm with acquaintances while sipping some European sauces I couldn’t afford to serve to my family. And I’ve enjoyed a ride in a Porsche and private yacht. I even enjoy opulent, palatial homes.

These are the very “things” we purchase with our wealth. These trinkets may make us happy temporarily, but in the end, it’s a testament to money not being spent wisely.

Don’t we know by know we’re looking for happiness in all the wrong places?

My kids and I paid a visit to the Caledon Santa Fund, to drop off some items for the less fortunate. I wonder if those in opulent homes have made a similar trip to the warehouse this holiday season. Nevertheless, I believed it was important for my children to understand the whole have and have-not scenario. I also wanted them to see the goodness in the hearts of others, the volunteers who work tirelessly to collect, organize and deliver these donations from our community. In Lexie’s letter to Santa, her last line read: “Don’t forget the poor, I didn’t!”

My kids may become rich and famous one day, and I don’t want them to forget where they came from and what’s really important - compassion, respect for others (except those aforementioned civil servants), humility and the need to give of oneself. Money or not, where would humankind be without such qualities?

And that brings me to my initial point.

You would think that in our wealthy and advanced society in North America, we would have eliminated poverty, disease and waste. By all rights, we should be living in some Utopia. But what has our wealth really purchased?

On our continent, we spend hundreds of millions (perhaps billions) on medical research each year - money that would literally feed the entire planet and provide vaccinations to everyone who needs them. Yes, we have many fancy advertising campaigns, fundraisers and marathons, to help defeat various diseases. We entice people to buy lottery tickets to help beat cancer, offering houses, yachts and Italian sports cars as prizes. In the end, we’re only taking baby steps in the fight against cancer.

“I thought wealth would have gone further toward reducing suffering than is actually the case. In many cases, progress has meant hardly anything more than greater numbers of opulent houses in more cities, with more cars driving between them,” said the Dalai Lama.

We have become rich, isolated and lonely individuals - quite the opposite of what we had hoped, eh?

The pursuit of wealth, according to the Dalai Lama, has led to anxiety, discontent, uncertainty, depression and a deterioration of spirituality and morality. It’s the ultimate paradox - we have everything yet we’ve lost everything of importance.

We have massive development in the civilized world - more people crammed into the same space, yet it seems we’re more lonely than ever before. Our relative wealth

has given us independence, to the point where we don’t have to rely on others. But in doing so, we’ve lost touch with our fellow human beings. Our future is not dependent on our neighbours, but on our jobs and modern devices.

And this leads us to another tragedy. As the Dalai Lama pointed out, we think that since others aren’t the source of our own happiness, their circumstances are not important to us either. Instead of close-knit communities, we have created alienation in our own backyards. People are part of the machinery of society, connected to the Net, their cell phones and their pets, but not to other people.

We’ve replaced brotherly love with envy and competitiveness, which creates a vicious self-fulfilling prophecy regarding securing wealth.

The festive season is all about love, giving and finding the truth.

I’d also like to remind everyone to use your wealth wisely - by sharing it with others!