Money: The best story ever told?
Today’s post is based on a writing prompt I shared in a previous Daily Drafts & Dialogues post: Free Write, Money. Keep reading to see what I wrote, and to access more writing prompts.
What I wrote below is based on the following writing prompt: Set a timer for ten minutes. Once you start the timer, start free writing about money, why it’s important or unimportant, and what it means to you. Write about whatever comes to your mind as soon as it comes to your mind and don’t overthink what you’re writing about. Don’t stop writing until the timer goes off.
They say, ‘Money is the root of all evil.’
Perhaps.
But it’s still a root we’ve planted deep underneath the soil of our lives. A root we’ve interconnected with elaborate webs of fairytales and dreams and nurtured with stories about its values and rules and meaning.
Which makes me wonder: What would happen if we stopped believing in it and all the fictions we’ve spun and grown around it? Because it’s a fictional construct most of us have bought into… but is that the way it needs to be?
Money is no longer a tangible object. One could argue that it never really was.
It, money, is literally hovering over us in the cloud somewhere, somehow, each and every day now. Though it’s still all in a cloud we can never see, have never seen. See what I mean?
People are making up their own currencies every day, too. Their own makeshift fantasies, sure, but fantasies others are still able and willing to buy into. And it’s worth considering the weight of what that means, at least for a beat, and what type of lasting consequences that will inevitably bring. Please, make them good ones?
They also say, if you want to understand how a system, organization, and or individual truly works, if you want to see what they’ve done, as well as what they truly value, that you should ‘follow the money.’
Because ‘following the money’ will always tell you a history, a true story, full of itemized line items and transactions and transfers and main actors, as well as everything and everyone missing from its sheets and rolls— all those easy-to-uncover plots and twists— if you’re reading between the lines. But even then, much of the story’s trail is no real mystery, since every plot hole reveals a truth yet untold and unseen.
So, I wonder: Do we need to uproot all the evil we’ve planted and nurtured and harvested? Then establish new root systems, write new stories, for sustainable living and prosperity? Or should we just burn it all down? Or pretend such a root system doesn’t exist?
None of those options will be easy or straightforward and will require time and space and coordinated efforts. But we did plant something in the soil of our interconnected lives once, that took root because we encouraged it and nurtured it and kept it alive with the stories we told and tell about it, for centuries now. An evil we’ve nurtured, that is literally and metaphorically strangling most of us.
So, what if we did that again… but planted and nurtured something much different instead?
Something wiser?
Something less evil and apathetic?
Something much easier to understand and maintain?
Something more… natural?
What do you say?
I might revise, edit, or add to this draft in the future. Stay tuned.
And don’t forget to leave a comment to start a dialogue or share what you came up with for this writing prompt.
© This work is not available for artificial intelligence (AI) training. All Rights Reserved by K.E. Creighton; Creighton’s Compositions LLC.
Want to express your appreciation for this post and writing prompt?
My writing and I are fueled by loyal readers, caffeine, and kind words, so I appreciate any support you can offer that keeps me writing. Thank you so much!
Today’s Writing Prompt
Writing Prompt: “If I ruled the world…”
Write flash fiction, or a journal entry, that begins with: “If I ruled the world...”
