Riches, Rewards, and Wealth; At What Price?

Why should a person be rich? Why should he[she] have expensive horses, rich clothes, wonderful rooms, and the leisure to visit public places of entertainment? Because he[she] does not have enough thoughts to accompany his[her] intellect. Give the person the inner work of his[her] intellect, and he[she] will be happier than the richest man.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

For those who live a spiritual life, wealth is not only unnecessary, but uncomfortable. It stops the development of one’s real life.

Count Leo Tolstoy Both cited in his Calendar of Wisdom

On this page of his collection of wisdom sayings, Tolstoy equates one’s real life with one’s interior search for meaning, and for the acquisition of spiritual riches such as a caring about justice and practicing compassion.

Concern for material goods, for one’s possessions and any attachment to them for the sake of identity and meaning, are the enemies of the heart; and the oppositional drives of anyone who would be focused on the common good or charitable concerns.

Similarly, Emerson points to the “rewards” of affluence as being the obstacles to one’s inner resources and soulful riches. Emerson prizes intellect, and in that valuation, declares that if your mind is open, eager, searching, and curious, then there is a distinctly lesser need for entertainment; or outside stimuli that would give a person a secure and satisfying social and personal life.

I find these criticisms to be unusual and deeply thoughtful. It probes more deeply, the need that exists within each of us to find ways to define ourselves within our culture, and how those efforts will come at the expense of our creative, imaginative, and philosophical selves.

Maybe that is the great societal trade-off; as we have always witnessed that poets, painters, and philosophers are often poor, destitute, or lacking in many of the simple resources and pleasures the middle class and the rich enjoy daily. They have always needed or relied on patrons and benefactors for any ease of life!

The “starving artist” is an accurate archetype for anyone who feels compelled to follow their Muse, their bliss, or their inclinations towards selfless service or creativity…

I know of many clergy-across the denominational spectrum-whose sense of vocational call have resulted in significant financial strain and economic stresses, myself included… I have questioned how it is that any artist, poet, musician or any philosopher or preacher can be or become rich, except by an accident of fate, family money, “playing to the crowd,” or being “discovered” by affluent patrons.

The compromises necessary to be acceptable to the status quo in order to achieve “respectability” or to have any sense of security, and utility can be daunting and dissatisfying. The realities of choosing non-profit careers often results in these difficulties.

In today’s headlines, there is an exodus from health care, education, ministry, or any career that one decides to work from the heart; because it does not offer any secure sense of being able to meet the needs of oneself and a family. While compromise might be necessary to achieve any sense of status or worldly success, it can become a tragic “devil’s bargain. It can create a gnawing angst, a restlessness, a yearning, or a need for an addictive compensation for not being able to follow one’s calling in its true or complete sense as a service to God and humankind.