The Trap of Wealth - Carl Creasman

I’ve written many times before about what I perceive about the sickness of our country as it comes to wealth. We’ve gone over the deep end and I don’t really know how we recover. You can read about those thoughts in the following links:

So, today, I was reading some J.R.R. Tolkien. Long time readers know I am fascinated with this man. His friendship with C.S. Lewis (another favorite) remains a passion of mine, and I seek a similar wonderful partnership among a few professor friends even today. In Tolkien’s The Adventures of Tom Bombadil, a collection of poems and verses he wrote over his lifetime, is the wonderful poem “The Hoard.”

In this poem, Tolkien lays out the story of a collection of “many fair things” including “bright crowns” and “graven silver and carven gold.” It all becomes a situation of “wealth piled.” Tolkien shares this was first accumulated in the most ancient of days before “dwarf was bred or dragon spawned.”

And yet, the original owners lose control over it to a dwarf. This dwarf, upon having the piled high wealth, continues to work hard to create even more wealth. Tolkien shares that he “worked his hands to the hard bone, and coins he made, and strings of rings.” Through his hard work, he accumulates more wealth…but also doesn’t see death coming in the form of a dragon.

The young dragon then proceeds to do much like the previous two owners. Become enamored with his wealth, collect some more and grow old fiercely defending the gold. He too, in turn, grows so old as to miss the fact that death was coming, in his turn, with the coming of a human warrior. Can you guess what is coming next?

Yep, the young warrior becomes an old king, sitting on the mountain of wealth, consumed with the gluttony of wealth. In response, the kingdom falls into ruin. “The swords of his thanes were dull with rust, his glory fallen, his rule unjust, his halls hollow, and his bowers cold.” And death comes still. Tolkien ends the poem describing the pile of gold now lost to memory, behind “a dark rock, forgotten behind doors none can unlock.”

What’s the point? Tolkien said that the poem was “a tale of the woes of ‘successive (nameless) inheritors’ of a treasure and a ‘tapestry of antiquity’ in which ‘individual pity’ is not to be deeply engaged.” The pile of wealth leads only to woes, not only for the greedy owner, but for those around the greedy owner. The original owners die forgotten. The dwarf dies alone. The king’s people die in ruin. The wealth then leads to a piteous situation.

There is nothing wrong with making money. Wealth can be used in powerful ways to better others. But, it also, almost ALWAYS, leads to a sickness. It not only breeds greed and gluttony, but it warps the mind from its ability to see “the other” in kindness and as another human of worth.

If we, as the individuals living in the USA, do not wake up from this sickness…. If we do not turn away from our addiction…we will face the same doom. And note—it was NOT ALWAYS this way…yes, there were some very wealthy people, but as a general rule, people did not come or live in the US to become rich. The American Dream was about freedom and liberty to live unhindered, able to survive on one’s own land.

And in the end, we all die. No one lives forever nor do you ever get to take anything with you. All those ancient societies that buried their leaders with wealth? That wealth was found by others later; the dead certainly never used it. Wealth is not to be hoarded. You don’t need to be making a million dollars, as if you ever really could ever spend that on needed living…certainly not in a year.

If you are one of the wealthy, then start today, in this week before Valentine’s Day, in giving it away. Share. Be generous. Don’t fall to prey to the same mistake as the characters of Tolkien’s poem. If you own a hoard, and many in America did, begin giving it away today.