Affluent

Glinda writes:

"Affluent" is often used to describe members of our "modern" society, particularly for those of us privileged to be in middle to upper incomes in the U.S. Blessed with such privilege, we think about what affluent means: being "rich", having access to lots of cash (our own and somebody else's, today's and tomorrow's), having an endless stream of material goods in the latest fashion, a big house in the right location, lots of garages, cars, techy toys, freedom to travel whenever and wherever we want. It often transcribes to doing whatever I want with my money and not considering the consequences to anyone or anything. In fact, the "other" is often not even on the radar.

Affluent is defined by the dictionary on my bookshelf as "1. flowing freely, 2. plentiful, abundant, 3. wealthy; prosperous, rich". As a noun, it means a "tributary stream". [New World Dictionary of the American Language, 2nd College Edition, (c) 1984, p. 23.] It is curious to me that money comes into the latter definition of the word.

I am offering a redefinition of affluent for my own personal dictionary: the privilege of...

• knowing something is wrong but not quite knowing what to do about it,
• knowing and doing what is right,
• knowing one's truth and following it,
• celebrating the multitude of companions along one's way, those human and otherwise, those seen and unseen,
• acting in a way that preserves the welfare and happiness of all beings, including oneself, now and in the future,
• following one's spiritual path in the purpose one is intended with humility and grace.

A tall order? To whom much is given, much is expected. I shall carefully fashion my own tender and tentative steps along the way.