What
you hold in your hands is different from any other
More
than Money
issue. This October, we took a deep breath
and jumped off the cyberspace diving board. At our initiative,
five different groups of
More than Money
readers
began writing to each other via e-mail. The
result? Splash! This issue lets you swim into several
invigorating pools of readers' perspectives.
We imagine that many of
you are reluctant converts to the glories and pressures
of super-speed technology. We are too. When fax machines
first became popular we snorted with scorn, "Why on earth
can't people wait two days for the mail!" Now our fax
machine hums many times daily, and we think, "What would
we do without it?" We tentatively dipped our toes into
e-mail this past summer and, while not yet addicts, have
grown increasingly charmed by its ability to facilitate
connection and community across distance.
The building of connection
and community is an essential part of
More than Money
's
mission. For most of us, money comes encrusted with family
and societal attitudes: more is always better; there's
never enough; money is evil; money solves all problems;
only men should handle the money, etc. Silence and isolation
glue such assumptions in place. By enabling honest exchange
about the complex human issues that accompany financial
abundance,
More
than
Money
aims to penetrate unquestioned "shoulds" and
to help readers find their own paths towards clarity,
integrity and action. E- mail can be an ideal medium for reaching out, as it offers
the rare combination of anonymity and connection.
As people step beyond the
silence concerning money, the spiritual and political
contexts that frame their personal questions become more
evident. For example, we both feel confounded by living
at a time of staggering inequality: when over a trillion
dollars a decade are passing from one generation of Americans
to the next; when the wealthiest 1% of the U.S. population
(those with household assets of $2.4 million or more)
own more than the bottom 92% combined, and the richest
358 people in the world own 40% of all the personal income
worldwide. As the reverberations of these disparities
are felt throughout society, we ask ourselves, "How do
we act in the midst of such enormous trends?" Being in
touch with all of you, via e-mail and otherwise, helps
us think through constructive responses.
Whatever implications of
wealth you tend to muse over, be they personal, political
or spiritual, we believe that being in dialogue with others
can enlarge your perspective.
Thus, we are exploring
several ways to help our growing membership expand the
circles and to connect more to each other. We hope you
will check out the insert page for initial local discussion
groups and on-going e-mail possibilities. Crack
open our eight-page resource guide or order our
sixty-eight page edition of Taking Charge. Call up one
of the organizations described and check out one of their
events. Put a notice in the next issue to find other readers
near you, or write down your own story for one of the
upcoming issues. Or simply show an issue of
More than
Money
to a friend or family member and say, "Hey,
what do you think of this?" Whatever level of money dialogue
you now enjoy, we invite you to take a fresh risk to reach
out.
--Anne Slepian and Christopher
Mogil, editors
© 1990-2005, More Than Money, All rights reserved