Part 1: There is no scarcity
The following1 could be read as a platitude. Or it could be read as a challenge. Or it could be read as the more beautiful world we know in our hearts is possible.
There is no scarcity. There is no shortage. No lack of love, of compassion, of joy in the world. There is enough. There is more than enough.
Only fear and greed make us think otherwise.
No one need starve. There is enough land and enough food. No one need die of thirst. There is enough water. No one need live without mercy. There is no end to grace. And we are all instruments of grace. The more we give it, the more we share it, the more we use it, the more God makes. There is no scarcity of love. There is plenty. And always more.
Do you really believe that there is no scarcity in the world? No shortage? That there is enough, more than enough for everyone?
Are fear and greed the only reasons you think otherwise?
I’m super curious what you think of what the Hardings are saying. I would love for you to write in the comments, or email me.
Part 2: The Allegory of the Long Spoons
The story of the long spoons is a rabbinic tale about the difference between heaven and hell. Here’s a video of it:
When I think of the Long Spoons, it reminds me of Francis Weller’s list of primary satisfactions:
The primary satisfactions are the elemental constituents of a healthy psychic and physical life. These included matters such as: adequate and available touch; comfort in times of grief and pain; abundant play; the sharing of food eaten slowly; dark, starlit nights; the pleasures of friendship and laughter. They also are centered on a rich and responsive ritual life that addresses concerns central to our lives such as initiation, healing and other major transitions; continual exposure to and participation with nature; storytelling, dancing, and music; attentive and engaged elders; a system of inclusion based on equality and access to a varied and sensuous world.
And here’s the secret: the things we really want can only be given by others. The only things that truly satisfy are long spoons.
Part 3: Needs and Desires
In FF1, we talk a lot about the difference between Needs and Desires. If you can’t make that distinction, you can’t build a budget. The whole idea of FIRE is that you preference the needs of Future You over maximizing the desires of Current You. I’ve come across a super interesting idea in the last month: that Maslow’s hierarchy of needs a little too neat: after a person has fulfilled their basic needs, they enter a universe of desires that does not have a stable hierarchy (image credit):
In other words, no one needs to teach us what we need: we have instinctual drives for food, water and shelter. But once we meet our needs, our desires are socially constructed. And in capitalism, we’re taught to continue feeding our ego desires for the “secondary satisfactions:” the achievement, status, and display of both overwork and overconsumption.2 It enhances one’s image as being superior. As Nadia Bolz Weber says, our drug of choice right now is knowing who we’re better than. Our great fear is that we’re not.
Gandhi said, “The world has enough for everyone's need, but not enough for everyone's greed.”
Do you believe this?
What do your actions say?
To build the world of enough-for-everyone Rachel and Rosemarie Harding are talking about, we have to start let go of our fear and greed. Not other people. Us. We have to start changing what our desires are. We have to stop stuffing our individual selves the bitter fruit of our ego’s insecurity, and start feeding each other the psychic food each really want: acknowledgement of our gifts, the look of full attention in someone’s eyes, the sense of true acceptance in a circle of love.
There is no scarcity. There is no shortage. No lack of love, of compassion, of joy in the world. There is more than enough. Only fear and greed make us think otherwise.
There is more than enough of what you truly want, for everyone.
For this to be true, we need to transition out of our pathoadolescence into another stage of human development. We need to move from ego to soul. As Mister Bob Marley, we think we’re in heaven but we’re living in hell.
We are all instruments of grace. All we have to do to make it heaven is to turn the spoons around. The more we give, the more we share, the more there is. There is no scarcity of love. There is plenty. And always more.
Rosemarie Harding was a leader in the Black Civil Rights movement in the 1960s. Many thanks again to the Center for Action and Contemplation for turning me onto another wonderful resource: https://cac.org/daily-meditations/no-scarcity-of-love-2022-07-21/
The signs of success in America are not only the consumption of goods, but the money, titles, and knowledge necessary to consume them.
Hi Douglas, what the Hardings are saying is something I experience with meditation frequently. If I have put goodness and love into the world through my interactions with people, the universe recharges me with the same love. In fact I receive more love than I give! I always feel a duty to return to the world the love I've been given. I think the point is to give in order to receive.