Equinox. Equal night, equal day. Equilibrium. Equality. Equity. Look around you-what do you see? Where is there balance? What is off-kilter? How do you relate to others, in the scheme of things?
“In the land of mad takers, can I be a mad giver?/In the land of the forsaken, can I be a foregiver?/… I see good people all around me, acting kindly, acting wisely/open your eyes-what do you see?/those in power are making their way-say STOP/we’ll hold them back with the magic in our cookpots” -Leah and Chloe Smith of Rising Appalachia, “Make Magic”.
I take a pulse on this moment: inequity is rampant.
According to Yes! Magazine Spring 2023, at this time rich Americans are richer than they have ever been in the history of this country. (Could We End Wealth? by Chris Winters, 2/27/2023).
Are you amongst the privileged set?
Most of us have fallen from whatever income and security we recently enjoyed. (Winters 27). That means people who were recently just hanging in there, paycheck-to-paycheck, are now destitute. Anyone can witness this on the street in nearly any big U.S. city. In my wealthy region, whole families beg outside grocery stores, and women and men-sometimes accompanied by a child-station themselves at every freeway offramp. It wasn’t like this just five years ago.
Jaw-dropping but true:
“When the Covid-19 pandemic triggered a global recession, the richest Americans saw their wealth increase by 40%…37.9 million people in the U.S. live below the poverty line [$30,000/year for a family of 4]”. (Winters 27).
Keeping Honest
The whole of our country operates like a company town. “I think its wrong that companies like Walmart and Amazon get paid-they can get paid by the government essentially, experience a wealth transfer from the public-for paying people less than a minimum wage,” says Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (Winters 27). And of course, the public, the people, are experiencing the opposite end of that “wealth transfer”. “One of the world’s largest companies both in revenue and employees, Walmart pays thousands of workers so little that they need food stamps to buy groceries-often at the same store they work in.” (Winters 27).
Our national rhetoric, at least in progressive spaces, espouses the equality of each and every person. Yet we mutely acquiesce to our mass exploitation. Could it be that we deep-down believe the conditioning, that the rich and privileged must have earned it? But No.
We are exploited because that is how capitalism works. Capital is accrued commercially if goods are sold for more than their value-passing the cost onto the consumer as well as the extra needed to profit. Also if labor is performed by slaves, servants, prisoners, children, or under-compensated workers. We can check four of these five boxes today.
We have made kings and queens of Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Bill and Melinda Gates. We might grumble, but we are not too repulsed by their celebrity. They entertain.
What Is Wealth Anyway?
Capitalism is inherently exploitative, unless the capital accrued is equitably re-distributed. Not hoarded by billionaires. Yet we love our “alpha dogs”. Chris Winters makes an intriguing comment: “..wealth is not only the accumulation of economic power, but it is also a marker of importance, status, and privilege. It identifies the alpha dog in the pack and gives that dog freedom to do things-even abusive, illegal, or violent things-that would not be tolerated from anyone less wealthy.” (28). Dogs do not use each other on the scale that humans use humans, history proves.
When you define wealth not as holistic abundance but as capital assets, it makes sense what Winter contends. That inequality is caused by hoarded accruals of wealth, not the other way around. “Inequality isn’t the root of the problem, in this case. It’s just a symptom of the real problem: wealth, and all the privileges and power attached to it. So let’s put an end to it.“
Yes, let’s.
A New Story
Here is a Spring Equinox story to tell aloud, for the teller and the listener both.
The Moon Hare
by Nora Lark
Long ago, in a place much like this, lived a brother and sister. They were prince and princess of the land. For half of the year, from the Spring Equinox to the Autumn Equinox, the princess and prince lived in their summer castle by the sea. For the other half of the year, from the Autumn Equinox to the Spring Equinox, they lived in their winter castle on a hill.
Now the prince and princess were preparing to go to their summer castle by the sea. The long nights were growing shorter and shorter. Soon the day would come, when the hours of light would equal the hours of darkness. This would be the Spring Equinox, and from there the days would grow ever longer.
The king and queen were already at the summer castle, preparing an Easter feast. For Easter is the full moon festival of the Spring Equinox.
So the princess and prince stayed behind to prepare for Easter too. All week, they gathered eggs and boiled them in onion skins. Did you know that boiled onion skins turn eggs a beautiful, earthy red color? They do.
When all the eggs were packed, it was time to pack toys, books and stuffies too. So many toys and books and stuffies!
“Do you really need all these toys and stuffies?” Asked their Nanny, Joe.
‘Yes”, they replied, “we definitely do.” The prince and princess were very attached to all of their toys and books and stuffies, so they packed everything. It was a huge load. And of course, they also packed lots of snacks for the road.
They set off. Pretty quickly they came the town where the common people lived. First there was farmland, with fields of wheat, potatoes, overwintering broccoli, and spring peas. The farmers paused at their work in the fields to watch the princess and prince go by, but they did not wave.
Soon the fields turned to paved streets, houses, and shops. Children came from every corner to crowd around the princess and prince. They stared at the fine, colorful clothing. The children themselves were in tattered brown clothes.
“Look”, whispered the princess to the prince, “no shoes on their feet.” The town children held out their empty hands.
“What do they want? The prince asked Nanny Joe.
“Food, I guess”, answered Nanny Joe.
“Then they should have our snacks!” Exclaimed both children at once. They handed out all the rest of their snacks to the town children, who grinned with joy. The princess and prince looked at the cold bare feet of the town children.
“If only we could give these kids all the shoes that we have, in our closet at the castle!’ They thought. ‘We have hundreds of shoes that we don’t even wear!’
“Go and get your baskets”, they told the town children. “We have more to give you.” Surprised, the children ran home to ask their parents for the baskets all common people own, for all sorts of tasks. When they returned, each basket was filled heaping full. There was a toy and a book and a stuffy for every child. Then the Prince and Princess gave out colorful eggs, and Nanny Joe threw in chocolates.
The children cheered with delight. The ran after the Princess and Prince all the way to the other edge of the town, swinging their now heavy baskets. Then they ran to the meadows and picked armloads of flowers: golden forsythia boughs, pink heather, and daffodils. These they showered on the Prince and Princess to say thanks.
The Prince and Princess and Nanny Joe continued on. They came to the edge of a vast, dark forest.
Driving down one road and then another, they soon became lost. One road ended in a swamp. The next road ended when the trees grew so thick and crowded together that they could no longer pass through. Nanny Joe turned around again. It was evening, and the darkness had closed in all around them.
“We’ll have to spend the night here”, Nanny Joe said. “I can’t possibly find our way out of here until dawn.” So the princess and prince and Nanny Joe made themselves as comfortable as they could. Their tummies growled for dinner, but there was no dinner.
The moon rose. It outlined the bare tree branches in scary shapes. “I can’t sleep”, said the prince to the princess. “Neither can I”, said the princess, and the two huddled close to keep warm. Still, the damp of the forest crept through their clothing. The children stared at the night all around them.
Then-“look”! Said one to the other. Into the little clearing hopped a rabbit with giant ears, a hare. The hare’s fur shone silvery in the moonlight, and the whiskers twitched.
“Here, rabbit”, said the prince. His sister did not think that the hare would come to them. But.. it did! The beautiful silver hare hopped right up to the prince’s outstretched empty hand. Then, it hopped right into his lap.
“Ohhhh, “ He said, as he stroked the soft fur. “Feel how warm.” The princess hugged the hare, and the hare snuggled down between the two children. All three of them fell asleep then, warm and cozy until dawn.
With the first rosy fingers of dawn shining through the trees, the beautiful hare, which was the color of moonlight, hopped away.
“Look!” said the princess, pointing in the direction that the hare had gone. “Isn’t that the road?” And so it was. Now they were able to find their way out of the deep, dark forest.
So they came at last to the Summer Castle. Their mother and father were waiting for them with a big Easter feast. Then spring turned to summer, with long days of running in the sand, swimming in the waves, and wading in the tide pools.
Brother and sister should have been completely happy. But they were not. They could not stop thinking about the town children, holding out their empty hands.
“Why”, asked the princess to the prince, “should some children, like us, always have more than we could every need? Why should other children, like the towns’ children, go without enough to eat, without shoes on their feet and without good warm clothes?”
It did not seem fair.
So the prince and princess called a meeting. Nanny Joe was there, who had a lot of common sense. The loving king and queen were at the meeting, and all their wise advisors.
“What can we do?” Asked the children. “Should we go back and give the town children our shoes?”
“Why don’t you ask them?” said sensible Nanny Joe. And so, a messenger was sent from the castle forthwith, to ask the town children what they wanted from their Prince and Princess. The messenger went speedily and quickly returned, accompanied by a young person from the town. This young person had come to deliver the answer, to speak for the entire town. They entered the castle in bare feet. In brown rags, they stood before the prince and princess and king and queen and all the advisors. And this is what they said:
“With all due respect. We do not want your shoes. In fact, we do not want a prince or princess at all, nor a queen and king. We do not think that any person should be above any other person. And furthermore, we want every child everywhere to be fed and clothed and cared for.”
“Can we do that?” The Princess and Prince asked.
“Hmmm,” said the advisors, and they talked amongst themselves. At last they replied: “Yes. It can be done. But it will not be easy.”
“We did not ask if it would be easy”, said the princess and prince. So they began to work for all the children of the world. From Equinox to Equinox, they worked with the common people to change the laws and customs, so that no child should ever go cold or hungry. Things did not change all at once. Change came slowly, child by child. Until many years later, not a single person ever went cold or hungry or uncared for.
The prince and princess grew up. They would have been the wisest and kindest king and queen that ever lived. However, they were no longer king and queen, because their laws had made it so that no one was above or below anyone else. Royal people and beggar people were now equal. Nobody was rich enough to own hundreds of shoes. But who can wear that many shoes anyway?
Sister and brother remembered the moon hare who had helped them when they were cold, hungry, and frightened. The town people remembered the colorful eggs that had been such a delightful Easter gift. And so, hares and colorful eggs came to be celebrated each Easter. And every person had enough.
