Abstracts
Edit: By the way, for those of you reading the feeds only, there’s more information in the comments.
The Tag
Slade has tasked me, as well as several other people, to respond to a tag that he has created.
The tag is designed to get his readers to stop and think about their relationship with money, and to install a healthy relationship.
This is a very object-oriented exercise, but as most people out there don’t program computers, I’ll leave the technical jargon out of it.
The task at hand is to personify your concept of Money, and identify its human qualities, then to create a new concept of money that you can have a healthy relationship with.
Old Money
Several people have already taken part in this tag, and have described their old money as the filthy rich, who care nothing about individuals, only about its own appearances. I can certainly see that as a good description of money, as far as most of society sees it. I tried to visualize Money in an Armani suit, teasing me with the promise of riches if I could just feed his ego, yet never quit delivering.
It didn’t work. That wasn’t my relationship with Money at all. It was close, but not close enough.
Instead of an Armani suit, he wore torn, old rags. Instead of feeding his ego, I had to feed his addiction. Old Money, to me, is a drug addict, and I got as much out of him as anyone can expect to get from a drug addict. He talked cool and made promises, but all too often, I saw him slumped in a corner with a blank stare on his face, with all of his dreams torn and shattered, in peices on the floor around them, as he had to scavenge them to get just one more fix and fight one more craving. He wasn’t even happy to be high anymore, he was just deathly afraid of the withdrawal, and his few lucid moments were spent gathering the resources he needed just to fight off another craving. His addiction was becoming more and more expensive, and he couldn’t function normally any more… I was there to enable him to keep up his addiction, and he loved me for it, but he couldn’t repay me in any way, not even emotionally any more.
New Money
Slade’s experiment really opened my eyes… Who ever thought of personifying an abstract concept like money? After identifying what I saw money as, I began to work on finding a new Money who I could have a relationship with. I don’t care about the gender, or their appearance… What I’m looking for in the personification of money is a person who doesn’t need me, but enjoys my company. I want someone who can teach me, but isn’t too proud to listen to my arguments either. I want someone who can take a joke, but who can also realize the seriousness of any situation. Most of all, I need Money to be responsible, patient, and responsive. I’m tired of the blank stares for extended periods of time, punctuated by panic and chaos… I need someone vibrant and alive, without being excessive.
I found a martial arts teacher. Jujitsu, to be precise.
His Lessons
His first lesson to me was to see money as more than just an abstract concept, which flows through some abstract economy… See it as a force, which I can direct. It flows through me, and it flows through everything around me. I can be stubborn about how it flows, disrupting its currents, and slowing it down, or I can relax, be responsive, and speed up its progress. He told me that money, like water, is stagnant and diseased when it is still, but vibrant and alive when it flows. Hoarding money causes it to go stagnant, but if you let all of it go, then when the lean times come, I won’t have anything to support myself… Keeping it in motion without letting it slip away is a great balancing act, but if we understand how to keep it flowing while in our hands, then it is nearly effortless.
He also used an analogy of opening a door with two knobs. If I pulled on the knob closest to the hinges, then I’m wasting energy just to get the door in motion. If I pull on the knob furthest from the hinge, then I may have to pull further, but the door will be much easier to open. If I seek money closest to the storehouse of money, i.e., the corporations, then I will have a very hard time getting that door open, but if I go away from that storehouse, and find my own unique handle, then the door opens much more easily.
He also told me to program, since that is my strength… but don’t force the programming, let it come. Simply keep myself in the right position, ready to act, comfortable, and when a problem presents itself, sidestep it and push it where it needs to go from behind. If the problem attacks me, move its force, so that it stops being a problem.
It is all a lot to think about, and I have many lessons to learn, but this new Money has promised to give me lessons that are only barely out of my reach, and as I master them, I will have the ability to apply them more thoroughly than I thought possible before.
Physically, New Money is a white male, skinny and toned. He appears to be in his mid-thirties, with smile lines accenting his eyes. He has an air of confidence that comes from within, rather than with what he gains from outside of himself. He never acts out of desperation or fear, but he is always calm, happy, and at peace, even when he is gathering energy and showing off his lightning fast moves and feats of skill.
Other Abstracts
This exercise has prompted me to examine many of the other abstract concepts in my life in greater detail. Reading the comments on Slade’s blog about other people’s experiences in this area has also led to greater thinking, and I’m at the cusp of a decision.
Many years ago, I performed an experiment where I created a pantheon of gods, based partly on my limited understanding of the Greek and Roman systems, with a heavy polarity between good and evil as a throwback from my then-recent experiences with Christianity. The gods began acting on their own accord, after I had named each of them, which leads me to a concept of “Willful Invention.” Many people recognize this as the Law of Attraction, as Intention Manifestation, or as Magick… What if we aren’t limited to influencing things on the physical and spiritual planes, but that we can also create real deities?
My Path
Now, I don’t want to start a new religion… That isn’t my purpose. I could, however, provide a framework for others to work out their own personal pantheons of the abstract entities working within their own lives. Just as with this experiment with Money, we could change our relationships with these abstracts, and even change their basic qualities.
Jung has identified several abstract concepts that are easily personified, in the form of the Anima/Animus, as well as the Shadow. It may not be wise to change the behavior of these integral parts of our own psyche, but we can change our relationships with them, understand them, and learn from them. There are plenty of external abstract entities out there as well, such as corporations and institutions who we can personify so that we can talk with them directly and understand them… Maybe a corporation really isn’t soulless… Its soul simply isn’t listened to. 
I’ll continue this experiment in the comments section… Please, join in, because, as Money has told me, a weight carried by many is easier to handle than the same weight carried by only one.
I forgot to put the links in before I hit the submit button. Sorry, Slade, but the technorati link will have to be put in manually.
It’s so interesting reading how differently everyone personifies Money - how we perceive it, what we want from it. I enjoyed both your descriptions, and could see them in my mind’s eye. I could also see how the drug addict and the martial arts master could be one and the same person, but one has channeled a positive path and the other has been washed along with life…
Great writing, keep it coming.
Much joy,
Kara-Leah
It is very interesting that you picked up on that… I only had that thought in the furthest reaches of my mind as I was creating the new Money… I wiped away all of the history of the old money, gave him a completely different set of choices, but I suppose that I left him in the same (but much healthier) body.
Freedom is the next abstract for me to tackle. Perhaps you could help me with that one?
Freedom is another friend of mine. He’s an abstract, so I can’t touch him physically, and can only communicate with him with my imagination, but like all abstracts, he is as real as we make him.
Freedom grew up with me… He grew up with all of us, and is our constant companion as we grow older. As children, we would play endlessly in the streets until the street lights turned on and my father would whistle for me to come in. As a kid, Freedom liked mischief, and we would get into endless trouble together.
When I became a teen, Freedom was right there with me, battling my step-mom and guiding my heart into the first tests of love.
Eventually, we became adults together… I recognized that my relationship with freedom was special, and I wanted to share that relationship with everybody, so I became a soldier. Freedom joined me, but we couldn’t get into as much trouble as we used to, since we had a mission to perform. Freedom met a new friend, Responsibility, although they had endless arguments. We were soldiers together, fighting the good fight, helping others to have a good relationship with Freedom as well.
On September 11th, when my attention was split between the loss of my relationship with my girlfriend and my grandfather who had gone to the hospital, Freedom was attacked and wounded gravely. My best friend laid in the streets bleeding, while those who could have helped him immediately simply talked. Eventually, he was taken away to a hospital and locked away, supposedly to keep him safe while he healed. We were given a new friend, Security, to keep us from worrying about Freedom as much… This new friend didn’t like to have fun, though, and even Responsibility didn’t like him very much. We were told, though, that Security could help Freedom to recover, so I grudgingly accepted him, telling myself that this really was the way to help Freedom.
It took me a while to realize that Security couldn’t help Freedom… All that Security could do was keep people from visiting Freedom in the hospital. It turned out that Freedom wasn’t as badly wounded as it seemed at first. He was simply knocked out in the attack, but he wasn’t allowed to leave the hospital because everybody feared for his safety. His stay in the hospital was far more damaging than the attack, though. He couldn’t move around freely, so his muscles suffered. He couldn’t think clearly because of the drugs being used to keep him calm, so it became even more difficult for him to come up with original thought. He certainly couldn’t play like he used to, because Security kept on bullying him to stay in his bed and rest.
I sprung my version of Freedom out about six months ago, and have been paying less attention to Security, because, as it turns out, Security is only a bully, and when he is confronted directly, he runs away very quickly. Security certainly isn’t the body guard that he claimed to be; He’s just a fat kid who feels good when everybody around him feels bad. Freedom, on the other hand, can only feel good when you are feeling good.
Freedom and I walked away from the situation a bit older and a bit wiser… He’s grown up with me, and has even started to listen to the advice of Responsibility, because he knows that when we do what we must, we have the ability to strengthen Freedom even more.
Does anyone like to share their story of their relationship with Freedom?
Adam,
In addition to the eye opening Drug Addict personification, here are some other gems I found in your post:
Brilliant articulation! I often grasp at the metaphor of Trying to Push the River when I’m talking about struggling, surrender, and being in the Flow. Or Getting in Your Own Way…
You really nailed this for me — the behavior of stagnant water versus fresh and flowing just put a new raygun in my Toolbelt.
Thank you for that.
I thought the Marial Arts Master was powerful because of the whole concept of Knowing HOW to kick butt actually releases one from having to constantly battle to prove it. When you KNOW you can protect yourself, you walk with a new confidence that doesn’t NEED anyone to know it. The power is just there. Possessing that is power in and of itself.
I know I am guilty of trying to Execute all the time - work it - work it more - when the idea of Proving myself is not necessary. It’s a potential — Available — without being required.
This idea of Surrender and FREEDOM is often the goal beyond the goal where meaningful, material abundance is concerned.
Thank you for participating and bringing something truly unique to this Abstract Art Show.
[…] Adam […]
Slade,
Thank you for this… I was struggling to put this into words as well… The idea of knowledge and skill releasing you from having to prove that you can do something is another reason why I chose the martial artist as my personification of Money. Rather than working at managing money, you simply manage it without the effort.
Hi Adam,
Thinking a little more about your Abstracts…
To provide a framework for people to construct their own personal pantheons, what you might need is a sort of questionnaire. I mean, the first step is to identify the areas of your life you have a bad relationship with. I bet lots of folks don’t know, for example, that their marriage is toxic or that everyone hates them at work.
I can see it now:
“Take This Fun Quiz and Find Out What Gods You Need!!”
Once you get a general idea, then you can go through a D&D or GURPS-like process of generating a character for your deities. Assign talents and foibles… skills… Does He or She have a Rival?…
Oh, this would be fun…!!
Adam,
I was thinking something very similar to what Jeff is suggesting; and I found myself hoping someone would come up with some kind of Major Arcana list of potential parts within the general concept of a Pantheon, which I could then cast with an exercise not unlike the Money Makeover.
Doesn’t Steve Pavlina have a Master List of Values on his web site somewhere, or am I thinking of someone else’s site?
Anway, I was thinking I’d be all over populating my Pantheon — a creative casting call — the auditions alone would be fun — IF someone provided me with a framework or basic structure to model.
While I do not think such an exercise HAS to CONFORM to anyone’s recipe, having a basic pizza crust, a couple of sauces, and a nice list of “avialable topping options” would allow me to play with the possibilities — and more quickly identify what I want to renovate or customize.
I can certainly envision doing this from scratch, but I think to reach a large audience and make the exercise as Universal as possible, it really feels more like a Renovation or a Remake…a scavenger hunt of existing Abstracts we share.
I would personally love to know who and what I’m looking for BEFORE I give Them the killer makeover.
Honestly, I was thinking of much the same…
Generate a list of common abstracts. Money, Freedom, Security, Curiosity, Passion, etc., then let each individual work out the details. To help people along, we’ll generate a few pantheons based on our own personal work, and show the differences and similarities.
It should work the same as the Money Makeover, but will take a couple of months instead of just about a week for the whole pantheon to be populated… This definitely isn’t for the faint of heart.
Steve Pavlina, bless his heart, has a list of 374 values here. This list is way too big, plus the terms are way too vague. Better might be this list of “Areas of Life” that he likes to use:
1. Work
2. Financial
3. Relationship
4. Home & Family
5. Physical Health
6. Mental
7. Social
8. Emotional
9. Spiritual
10. Character
11. Contribution
12. Fun & Adventure
“Money” is “Financial”, obviously. How ’bout we start here, cowboys?
One area of life that has made a huge impact on me was War. There’s something to say about having a Mars-like figure extolling the virtues of defending your liberties and rewarding discipline and loyalty. To me, though, he would be a grisly Sergeant Major and a young private.
The rest of the list looks great… I’m having trouble with personifying Physical Health, though. Relationship would be another one which I could easily split between two beings; love and passionate romance, or the Maiden in the triple goddess (Lad in a triple god?). Home & Family would be Mother/Father to me…
I think that we’re also missing Mystery, a.k.a., Crone. I’m also big on a personification of Liberty.
Add any more that you want, then we’ll start working on them to see what we come up with.
I’ll have to start a new post with a list of abstracts that can be personified. We don’t want too many, as this should be a relatively short exercise (in the order of a few months, rather than years), but I like nice, long, healthy lists…
I’m also considering the idea of a hierarchy, just as Jeff mentioned somewhere that there is a hierarchy associated with words in a language. I don’t want it to have a single root, but have it be like a forest, with similar properties being found throughout, but within the constraints of those similar properties, have a vast array of differences, none of which directly controlling another; simply influencing the others at the boundaries of their domain…
Perhaps with the Relationship domain, we can have Love (Agape), Love (Eros), Camaraderie, Business relationships, Indifference, Rivalry, and even Hate. For myself, I would probably give each the same basic body, but vastly different personalities depending on their sub domain.
[…] a quick list of the abstract archetypes that I promised in the comments section of Abstracts. Feel free to add your own in the comments section, and I’ll be adding a few to this list as […]