For 3/4 of my adult life I’ve lived in poverty. My impoverished life, though, was of my own making. I was chasing a goal–education–and that was why I ended up poor.
I resented my poverty quite a bit, when I was in school. I didn’t see why poverty was a necessary condition for education. The English department at my university had a motto, “Going for broke!” Back then, I spoke with a young woman once, and asked her if she were considering Ph.D. studies. She said that she wasn’t. When I asked her why, she replied, “I don’t want to spend the next 8 years of my life in poverty.” However, pursuing the goal of higher education made my poverty bearable. I had a higher purpose; it transcended the pecuniary world. I tried to make myself feel better by thinking about Hemingway, and his poverty in Paris while he was learning to write. Nobody likes poverty; but when one likes a calling more than money, one accepts one’s condition.
Now I have a comfortable income. That has been for 12 years out of my 40 adult years. I am still getting used to the feeling of having enough money, in fact more than I need. But I am still pursuing a higher purpose, though, with my money. I am recording a disk of my original music. And that is draining a considerable amount of my income. Some might consider this an extravagance, in that I’m not a professional musician and I’m not in a band. But even as higher education is not always a money-making endeavor, but a meaningful pursuit, so music is not always a money-making endeavor, but art is a meaningful pursuit. And without the CD project, I don’t know what I would do with the several thousands I am investing in this enterprise. And for me, the purpose of money is to be used–not just possessed.
Most people secure gainful employment at a young age and spend most of their lives financially set. I think self-image for many depends on money. Sociologists have given us status labels. They made up the categories, “upper-class; middle-class; lower-class.” In doing so, they told us how we were to think of ourselves. I try not to measure my self-worth by money. But when I was an impoverished student, always riding in the back-seat of someone else’s car, not being able to buy “nice things,” not being able to take a girl out on a date, I felt worthless. This, despite my higher calling, higher education. My brother, a rich engineer, told me, “It’s only money.” That didn’t help. Now that I’m in a good financial place, I don’t think about money at all, don’t measure myself by money.
Growing up, my generation disdained money. The rock music of my time sung songs against materialism and money (Pink Floyd wrote a song with that for a title). We talked about love and peace; looked to get back to Nature. Perhaps that’s why I didn’t pursue money in my life, but went for more spiritual acquisitions. I made my bed and I’m happy to sleep in it. Everybody makes their own bed. They must sleep in it, and hopefully they are happy to, as I am.
David Fekete 