I saw a movie last night called Living Without Money. It was about a middle-aged German woman who gave up using money 14 years ago. Heidemarie Schwermer now lives on the road, travelling between places where she gives lectures and holds workshops. She is either given food or she collects left-overs from markets and grocery stores, or does work in exchange for food.
She has a strong belief that “she’ll be taken care of”, and I think this is key for someone who wants to live without stress, whether living in a house and using money, or not! She’s not constantly stressed about what will happen in the future, if she’ll have enough, if she’ll get sick, if she’ll end on the street. And just imagine, these are worries of regular people who actually own a house and have a job! We can learn a lot from that attitude – firmly believing you’ll be taken care of.
She admits that it would be difficult for a person to completely change direction today, and totally give up money. She doesn’t even directly encourage people to do it. But she wants to underline that our current system doesn’t make sense. She says there is too much emphasis on having and buying and being defined by what you own.
She said something else which is worth retaining. It was about the actual value of things. We give too much value to material things that may not actually be as valuable as we think. Does the price of an object define it’s worth, for example? If we think twice about it, we might find that value may not lie where we thought.
What are your thoughts about money and real value?
Heidemarie Schwermer (Image: bioparadis.is)
