Sunday Sermon [Sex and Money]

Hola mi Gente,

Hope you’re having a great weekend. Yesterday, I spoke about the death of a relatively young man. He died of cancer. From the time of his adolescence, he spent a substantial portion of his adult life in and out of prison. I say this to highlight that the policies we choose to implement have life and death consequences. I doubt he would’ve spent that much time, or even any time had he been white. Period.

Today it is Sunday, my excuse to rant.

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Sex & Money

My life has a superb cast but I can't figure out the plot.

-- Ashleigh Brilliant(1933– )

Imagine, if you can, going out and seeing a reasonably trustworthy-looking stranger you find sexy. Imagine giving this sexually attractive stranger some money, looking him or her in the eyes and saying, “I’m doing this as part of an assigned exercise. I’m supposed to give some money to somebody really sexy. Then I am to have no further discussion.”

As you imagine doing this exercise, how does it feel to give someone money while admitting out loud they are sexy?

Most of us are a wee bit conflicted about both sex and money. Essentially, these are forms of energy exchange, which can be as simple as an unexpected gift, or as complicated as a lawsuit. Sex and money: the sources of our desire and disappointment, our hopes and fears.

To live fully, as far as I’m concerned, is to live every moment so that no residue remains except the free openness of love. Sex and money are most often our least lived domains, these are the areas smeared with the most residue -- the most baggage. Therefore, few people (if they are honest) can imagine doing this exercise without some lingering clinging of an emotional complication.

I have found that the best way to discover how live fully is to break the usual rules, in the least risky ways, in order to find out where the obstructions reside within us.

Now, repeat this exercise, or invent one of your own that requires you to imagine offering gifts beyond your comfort zone. As you learn to give despite your fears, your sexual and financial lives can be lived according to what serves openness the most, rather than being ruled by the consequences of living a fear-based life, holding back your gifts.

It’s easy to become stuck in your own personal soap operas of sex and money. What you can’t live as openness, offered without baggage, creates sickness in your life. Yet, the price of discovering where you’re stuck sexually and financially may be more than what you’re willing to invest.

The core question today being do you maintain sexual or financial secrets? These secrets are among your most secret refusals to live openly as love.

Are you willing to face, feel, confess, and open beyond your every sexual and financial complication now? My life has taught me that human birth is for those who are not quite ready but may be on the verge -- willing -- that’s the reason why you are here as you are. If your issue was about swinging from a vine, you would’ve been born an ape.

My name is Eddie and I’m in recovery from civilization…