CREAM

A few years ago, a friend of mine told me of a piece of graffiti commonly seen on the walls of buildings: "CREAM". Apparently it stands for "Cash Rules Everything About Me".

In many ways, I find the slogan to be so appropriate for myself, working in economic development, but not likely in the same way that the graffiti artists intend:

• just as in graphic arts, a "rule" is a line that separates two parts of the page, so too, Cash "rules" everything about me, in the sense that it's separates and focuses for me the main subject area of all my conversation -- "Cash".
• the word "about" can be taken into senses -- "around", and "in regards to" -- and when taken in the first sense it is very true: Cash does rule practically everything around me in our capitalist/socialist society.
• in the addiction world it is a truism that young people do not rebel by creating something new, but rather by taking something from their parents' generation and pushing to an extreme. In this, I share the rebellious streak of the graffiti artists, but differ in the area I have chosen to push to an extreme.
• I sense that the graffiti artists have chosen to take the "financial dominance" aspect of the capitalist system, and are pushing it to an extreme, as a statement the rebellion: taking as their slogan, "Cash rules everything in regards to me".
• in my case, I have chosen the "spiritual dominance" aspect of Christ, and I am pushing it to an extreme, modifying the slogan slightly, to read: "Christ rules everything about me".
• when I was 13 I was asked, when I joined the church, "Do you take Christ as your saviour Lord?". There are two parts to that question, and I found the second part has been a greater challenge to grow up into -- to the place where I can say, "Christ rules everything in regards to me".
• I find that replacing "Cash" with "Christ" is a far more radical step in relation to my home culture, and than merely taking the "financial dominance" aspect of my home culture and pushing it to its extreme.

In my work in the area of economic development, I find the creative tension implicit in the graffiti slogan "CREAM" harks back to an observation that Christ made, that there are two rulers in this world, God and Mammon (the love of money), and we can serve one or the other but not both. That for me epitomizes the fun and the challenge of this line of work.

Work in the area of "Economic development", for me, limits me to the area of "Cash", and limits me from sidestepping and avoiding the creative tension inherent in the field.

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