Issue #2: Income And/Or Outcome: The Money Issue

Introduction
Words by Jeni Kozicky

Money. To some, it's everything. To others, it's meaningless. But whether we like it or not, it governs the way we live. We sell ourselves for minimum wage, doing work we often despise, and all for what? For a piece of paper which our society has deemed valuable? And as we make the transition from stone to paper to pixels our currency is slowly becoming less and less tangible every day. In it's wake lies a trail of plastic cards, digits and data.

The house. The car. The desire to consume. What reason is there for us to gain satisfaction in such things? If we could learn to find happiness in simplicity we would never again feel the need to pacify ourselves with material lust. The society which we live in drives us to work away our lives on the nine to five grind, while they spoon feed us unnecessary things that they've convinced us we need.

I can't even imagine the painful monotony. Going to the same building every day, to the same cubicle, with the same flickering neon lights, and the same computer that slowly sucks away our souls. Now maybe I'm being a bit drastic. Some might find comfort in that monotony. It's easy to fall into routine. But me? If I could, I'd like to wake up everyday and find myself someplace new.

Our society places many expectations on us. Go to college. Get a good job. Get married. Buy a house. Have children. Raise a family. The American dream right? Well in attempts to achieve this dream so many find themselves slipping into a sea of debt, and then spending nearly the rest of the rest of their lives working to pay it off.

My solution is to live humbly and to live happily. To me happiness is not measured by financial success, but rather personal contentment with ones own life. We all have the capability to create our own reality and that individuality is what makes us all so unique and beautiful. If you surround yourself with love then money should be of no concern.

This second issue of And/Or is devoted to the subject of money, and the pages to follow contain responses to this concept by artists and writers from the Twin Cities community. Let their voices be heard.