Money & Grief The most common relationship between money and grief is well-known. Within a family system, the loss of financial stability and the challenges of unwinding financial relationships coming in the wake of a death are inescapable. There is also a documented relationship between the loss of a loved one and excessive spending that becomes a form of self-care. There is a world of coping mechanisms to find our way through the crushing experience that comes with such losses.
There is an interesting paradox around money. As you point out, Gary, our relentless pursuit of a return on financial capital (aka modernity/coloniality/racialized capitalism) is at the heart of the growth in fossil fuel burning, deforestation, resource extraction, and labor exploitation that has created the metacrisis. At the same time, we urgently need to mobilize far larger sums of money for much of the work that can still be done to mitigate the worst effects of the climate/meta crisis and to adapt to the changes it is now too late for us to prevent. So we need to perform a kind of alchemy around money--one that frees us to work with it even as we recognize the evil it has wrought.
The point you make that, in all likelihood, the financial house of cards will come tumbling down in a matter of a decade or three provides some leverage for this shift, I believe. This is something I'm working on, and it would be nice to reconnect to talk more about that, my old friend!
There is an interesting paradox around money. As you point out, Gary, our relentless pursuit of a return on financial capital (aka modernity/coloniality/racialized capitalism) is at the heart of the growth in fossil fuel burning, deforestation, resource extraction, and labor exploitation that has created the metacrisis. At the same time, we urgently need to mobilize far larger sums of money for much of the work that can still be done to mitigate the worst effects of the climate/meta crisis and to adapt to the changes it is now too late for us to prevent. So we need to perform a kind of alchemy around money--one that frees us to work with it even as we recognize the evil it has wrought.
The point you make that, in all likelihood, the financial house of cards will come tumbling down in a matter of a decade or three provides some leverage for this shift, I believe. This is something I'm working on, and it would be nice to reconnect to talk more about that, my old friend!