What's In Your Wallet?

...accountability is the new currency

Yeah…it’s wild times.

Whether you identify as blue, red, purple, or you shy away from clearly defined bands of color forming the cultural and political spectrum of our Western world…

I think we all are wondering which pill we swallowed…

…what trip we are about to take together, now?

Last night, driving back into Uptown Charlotte, I saw my beloved skyline lit up as usual. Thinking I would see red, white and blue for the Veteran’s Day holiday, I was puzzled at the wash of glowing green. Bright, Oz-emerald green. What did it mean?

Every night from my home in this city’s heart, I see the Duke Energy Center, the Bank of America Corporate building, the Hearst Tower (“Truist building” to me) magically coloring the inky darkness with symbolic rainbows.

Often I tune in to the tonal patterns, curious to see what is important to the Wizard Behind the Curtain that day.

A Panthers Game?

credit: Wxgeekdave @ r/Charlotte / go to pic

Solid red rose Valentine’s Day bouquet?

Pride Parade multicolor splash?

“Independence Day”, says the static patriotic fireworks display that paints Old Glory on the night.

Last night I wondered, “what did it mean?”

Was it a nod to our tie to nature, our oneness…maybe even a testament to the futility of constant conflict, a clarion call for peace?

Perhaps a hint that the drivers of the War Bus have $-marks-the-spot loaded as GPS destination?

With the precedent setting election just days ago, was it lightheartedly quipping “we’re not in Kansas, anymore”?

Thoughts turned to the areas of our lives with curtains-being-pulled-away, light revealing pearls within cognitive-dissonance shadows, tapestry of our togetherness remaining with all its technicolor paradox.

The truth that each of our truths rests on our interpretation of symbols.

Everyone knows what a wallet is, right?

A small pouch to carry valuables, usually green paper and plastic cards to keep account of the flow of currency we direct….

The origin of “wallet” is from the PIE root *wel- meaning “to turn, revolve”. As in, a roll or knapsack containing belongings, which presumably over time became specialized to refer to the thing that makes you feel worthy depending on it’s fatness.

That’s a joke, for those of you who are new to this space.

Tbh, I think most folks have a complicated relationship with “money”, and me throwing out the concept of wallet = turn, revolve versus “holding tank” is the kind of pondering and poking curiosity I love. With pictures. And jokes.

So, the accounting that is symbolic in one’s wallet, ones turning place, might rely on the currency being moved.

Here’s a previous quick podcast post on the subject of currency…probably not what you would expect tho….

For me, the peeling away of layers of symbols, like thousands of mattresses stacked on a pea that made rest elusive for lifetimes, has revealed not a troublesome piece of gravel in my shoe, but a cloistered raw pearl. Time and time again.

What distorted the beauty of those precious insights, what served as truth-for-a-time, were symbols energized with meaning to remain constants in my life. At least for a season, or 3, or 48.

The accountability required to look in my wallet, see what I was holding as current, what I was allowing to flow and change in the turning of time, what I was making count….

Whoo. Gives new meaning to the word “wrong”. Mistaken.

Oops I did it again.

If it weren’t for the immediate liberation of life-force that came with each well worn belief-bill I discarded, I probably would have stopped chasing carrots…

(get it??karats?! 🤣)

…and settled back onto the old familiar bed of (dis)comfort, waiting for the world to change…or at least listen to all of my very well-meaning talking points for correction.

Oh, I’m laughing my head off at the silliness of my so-called adulting right now….

And as you can imagine, with the “ooooh! green! pretty!” ponderings, I was wrong…again.

Turns out, in a surprising way, as all of my musings were so contained compared to the truth on this one.

And I’m blown away by the complexity of understanding that this collaborative action for Veteran’s Day symbolizes.

While I’m including links for the cool origins of the skyline light show, and the coordinated schedule, here’s what Scott Garlow, director of Mecklenburg County Veterans Services, tells us the choice means:

“By shining a green light, we let our veterans know that they are seen, appreciated, and supported…

For generations since our nation’s founding, volunteer military force members and their families have made immense sacrifices for our safety and security.  

We want to ensure our veterans and their families know that their service mattered, that we are grateful for their sacrifices, and that it is now our turn to ensure they are served by their local communities.”

With our load lightened, our post-2020 vision more clear, and our hearts overflowing with all the love our circuits can handle, we can remove the resistors of dusty-bedrock “truth” for even more current to move through us.

Shine a green light.

See the human in front of you.

Appreciate their truth, their story, their sacrifice and service in whatever symbol it appears.

Ensure said fellow traveler hears you loud and clear: what they have lived through, their story, matters.

That we in our local communities will keep turning until we see the resources each of us needs to feel our fit together, in the tapestry that perfectly weaves our stories into one.

No matter what lies behind us, now it is our turn.

Regardless of who serves as president of these United States of America, it is We The People who turn towards or away from our current flow as One.

I think pondering allows discovery of silly and oh-so-serious thoughts that we fuel with well-meaning life-fuel, and paradox allows these “truths” to hang out a little longer together at the water cooler, without old-playbook gatekeepers sorting each idea into us and them.

Unpack the symbols, shine the green light, and…

…it’s just US.

From wikipedia, one hypothesis for the development of the dollar sign…

to unpack the symbol, connect the parallel paths to create U, peel the layers apart, and…it becomes US again ;)

Tremendous gratitude to all who walk the path of Veteran, to those whose lives are shared with the warriors on that path, to all who see and hear those with stories of service and sacrifice, and all who marshall the resources to support our wholeness.

Thank you to Mecklenburg County for this effort, and the news release detailing local focus on Operation Green Light, with information to connect with support.

Special thank you to Bob Bertges for seeing the light shining in your home town, and sharing your light with our community in Charlotte.

©2024 Lux Productions, LLC / the bast